“I’d like to get to New York ASAP, maybe early January if it’s safe. How and when we report to spring training may dictate things – but I’m really excited. I can’t tell you how excited I am to come back to New York and be in a big market.”
Those are the words of brand new Mets general manager Jared Porter, making his first of what we hope are many appearances on WFAN on Monday’s Carton & Roberts Show.
Porter, 40, is a northeasterner at heart (he grew up in Massachusetts and went to Bowdoin College in Maine), and he worked under some of the best in baseball (including Theo Epstein in Boston and Mike Hazen in Arizona), so he knows pressure – but he isn’t feeling it, even when it comes to Steve Cohen’s comments that not winning a World Series in three to five years would be “slightly disappointing.”
“I think it’s great. I think we all have to challenge ourselves daily and have big goals. If we don’t, what are we doing this for?” Porter said. “We’re trying to win and put out a good product for our fans. That’s a huge part of the reason why I wanted this job so badly. Call it pressure or whatever, but I love it.”
There was wonder from Craig and Evan why Porter’s name wasn’t linked to Chicago once old friend Epstein stepped down and Jed Hoyer moved up, and there’s a two-word answer for that: Steve Cohen.
“I have a great relationship with those guys over there and they have a great thing going over there…but once this Mets opportunity popped up, and they called, I was singularly focused on this job,” Porter said. “I can’t tell you how excited I was to come back to New York and be in a big market. I love Citi Field, and following Steve Cohen and seeing how excited he is and how he’s energizing fans…that pumped me up.”
As far as the Mets roster Porter inherits, he calls the current state of the franchise “a plus.”
“I think one of the plusses of this opportunity is what’s on the roster right now. Jake deGrom sitting atop the rotation is so critical, and Marcus Stroman coming back, he’s a guy who wants to throw the ball under the brightest lights,” Porter said. “On the field, Pete Alonso is an All-Star caliber first baseman, and then McNeil, Conforto, Nimmo…there’s a lot of depth and a good blend of youth and experience. When you have those kinds of building blocks in place, it’s appealing. There are areas that need to be addressed, but the core is in place.”
One thing Porter stressed in both his initial media availability and his time with Carton & Roberts (and Evan and Craig both later brought up) was his insistence on defense and run prevention as an important piece of the puzzle.
It was brought up when Evan asked Porter about Brandon Nimmo as a center fielder, and the discussion moved into what Porter noted was another key to success.
“One of our things is to put our players in position to play at or above their ceilings year in and year out, and that could mean the right matchups, rest at the right times, where they play in the field, or where they hit in the lineup,” Porter said. “And, I believe in culture. There are humans out there, so putting them in an environment that fosters winning is important. You have to have success to breed success.”
One of the places Porter is simpatico with new owner Steve Cohen: data is important, but combining data with the human element is even more important.
“There’s so much more information available now, and blending that strategy with coaching is so important,” Porter said. “I think one of the great things about baseball is that it’s a sport that’s very quantifiable, and you can evaluate execution. But, it’s also a sport where there are 162 games and 30 or 40 players used, so the human element is hugely critical. The people who do it the best are people who are good at blending those.”
Porter wasn’t responsible for the James McCann signing, although he knew of it and approves of it – “When you interview for these positions, a lot of things come up; they made those decisions before I was hired, but I’m excited with what they’ve done so far,” he said – but he’s ready to not only add to McCann, but add to him with what he calls “quality depth.”
“What I mean by that is that it should always be a goal to limit the amount of pitches thrown or at-bats taken by below-average major-league players,” Porter said. “The more you can build that depth around your regulars is critical. With the rotation, we have the luxury of the two at the top, but it’s an area we’re still going to address – and not necessarily just at the MLB level. We have McCann, but we still have positional things to figure out, and we’re going to start zeroing in on them moving forward.”
The Mets don’t have a specific budget yet that Porter knows of, nor do they know if the DH will continue in the NL in 2021, but the new GM isn’t letting those unknowns cloud his thinking.
“Right now we’re preparing to not have it, but we just can’t let it affect us. We have to pound forward, and realize we’re fortunate to have, say, both Pete Alonso and Dom Smith on the team,” he said. “I won’t let that affect how we think and what we do. There’s so many plate appearances to go around that if they’re both here and there’s no DH, we’ll be great for it.”
One other thing not to worry about: any clashing between him and Sandy Alderson on decisions.
“There’s so much collaboration that goes into the decisions we make that, by the time we get to the point of making a decision, we’re already going to have hashed that out,” Porter said. “Everywhere I’ve worked, I think that constructive disagreement through the evaluation process is what breeds success. It’s important to have those hard conversations where everyone speaks up, so that the right decisions can be made.”
And, hopefully, given the state of the world, Porter and his new Mets will report to Port St. Lucie in February as scheduled, and get the new era underway.
“I think the expectation now is to plan for things to start on time,” he said. “MLB continues to monitor things, and they did such a great job last year navigating it for us. They’re very aware of everything going on around the world, and they’ve been great.”
You can listen to Jared Porter’s entire segment on Carton & Roberts below!
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