For 45 minutes Monday afternoon, new Mets general manager Jared Porter sat on a Zoom call with the New York media and described the front office and culture he’d like to build in Queens.
He wants the Mets front office to be collaborative, empowering everyone in baseball operations to have an effect on decision-making. He wants to develop the talent already in the front office and eventually to augment it with smart hires from outside the organization. He wants to expand player development and analytics so that they, along with scouting, will be an engine powering the organization.
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He wants to build an operation like the one he just left in Arizona.
For four years as an assistant GM with the Diamondbacks, Porter was as crucial a member of the operation as anyone shy of GM Mike Hazen himself. Porter oversaw pro scouting and was directly involved in signing many players. He negotiated trades and worked to stock Arizona’s farm system and 40-man roster with talent. When Hazen wanted to build a mental skills department, Porter did much of the legwork. When the Diamondbacks decided to install artificial turf at Chase Field, Porter led the charge along with vice president of special projects Graham Rossini.
“He earned it,” said Hazen, who has worked closely with Porter for almost two decades. “He’s worked really hard for us for the last four years.”
It is Porter’s well-roundedness — along with many other important qualities — that made him such an attractive candidate for the Mets. (And for the Angels, who interviewed Porter for the GM vacancy that eventually went to Perry Minasian earlier this offseason.) And it’s also what makes losing him so bittersweet for the Diamondbacks, who are thrilled he’s getting a chance to run a team but are sad to see him go.
“We’re losing a key cog in the machine,” said one member of the pro scouting staff.
Not only is Porter fluent in the languages of scouting and analytics, but his direct reports also describe him as being a great manager of people. It was not uncommon to hear one of the Diamondbacks’ young pro scouts parrot Porter’s mantra — “Dominate the job you’re in” — which the new Mets GM brought up in his introductory press session. Porter was passionate about finding players from every background, and he pushed his scouts to be relentless in that pursuit.
“He emphasized the importance of leaving no stone unturned — be incredibly thorough, win on the margins,” said the scout. “He has a high standard and to meet that bar, you need to be on top of your game. Put in the extra work and maintain a high level of attention to detail.” Added the scout: “He’s helped me and so many of our other guys to develop, bringing out the best we could be.”
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The notion of losing Porter — and possibly the team’s other assistant GM, Amiel Sawdaye — has been on Hazen’s radar for several years. When he brought them to Arizona with him in the winter of 2016, both were already seen as soon-to-be GMs. One of Hazen’s missions since then has been to develop the front-office talent below them, and he feels that mission has been successful. “One of the things I always impress upon him and Amiel and others is ensuring that if people got better opportunities, that we had people ready to step in,” Hazen said. “I feel like we have that.”
It’s not immediately clear, though, how Porter’s duties in Arizona will be handled. It is likely to be a team effort. “It’s going to be people absorbing job responsibilities,” Hazen said. More will fall on the plates of pro scouting director Jason Parks and baseball operations director Sam Eaton, along with perhaps vice president of research and development Mike Fitzgerald. It is possible some of that trio, along with other members of the front office, receive a formal promotion. Hazen hinted that there might be news on that front down the line.
“We’re working through a few of those things right now,” the GM said. “I don’t want to get into anything specific like that. There’ll be more responsibility for people. We’ll probably more of an update on that in the coming days.”
One thing the Diamondbacks likely don’t have to worry about is a sizable exodus of front-office employees to Queens. Porter said on his call it’s not in his immediate plans to add to his new front office group, and the baseball calendar would make that a bit difficult. The sale of the Mets to new owner Steve Cohen, along with New York’s initial focus on hiring a president of baseball operations instead of a GM, means Porter takes the reins later in the offseason than typically happens with most new GMs. It’s not uncommon in those circumstances for a GM to face restrictions on how many people he can hire immediately from his old employer.
“I’m not going to get into any specifics on that,” Hazen said when asked if there were any limits on who Porter could bring with him to the Mets. “But given the timing of the offseason, it makes it a little more challenging for this year.”
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Losing Porter will be hard enough as it is. He did a lot for the Diamondbacks. But thanks to the culture Hazen has installed — a “flat structure,” as Hazen put it, where everyone can touch every part of the organization — the Diamondbacks are poised to cover his absence as best as they possibly can.
“He is very much deserving of this opportunity,” Hazen said. “He’s done a great job for us. Now it’s on us to make sure that we can pick up in other areas.”
(Photo of Jared Porter: Zoom via Associated Press)