A new leader
Catching you up on a busy weekend for the Mets
Good Morning,
It was a busy weekend for the Mets, so let’s get into it.
Catch me up in 30(ish) seconds…
GENERAL MANAGER: On Sunday, the Mets officially announced Jared Porter as the 14th general manager in team history. He is reportedly signing a four-year deal. The club will introduce him in a press conference at 4:30 PM EST today (more in a bit).
BACKSTOP: Mets signed free agent catcher James McCann to a four-year, $40 million contract (more in a bit).
BENCH COACH: The Mets are adding Dave Jauss as bench coach next to manager Luis Rojas. Jauss was bench coach to Jerry Manuel with the Mets in 2010. He also worked with Porter in Boston during the 2004 World Series season.
LEFT-HANDED RELIEF: Mets are bringing back LHP Jerry Blevins on a minor-league deal that would pay him $1.25MM in the majors with $750,000 in potential incentives, per USA Today. New York only has one lefty reliever (Daniel Zamora) on their 40-man roster.
SOMETHING FUN: Trevor Bauer ranked Mets fans second best to the Angels fans in making their online pitches for him to sign with their favorite team.
What’s the catch?
FIRST PITCH
The Mets are clearly sold on the recent performance of former White Sox catcher James McCann in signing him to a four-year, $40 million contract over the weekend.
WORKING THE COUNT
I already dedicated two newsletters to McCann, so I won’t overkill the topic. However, I think there are a few key points to highlight that I haven’t talked about before.
How the deal came together: Based on reporting by the LA Times, it appears the fourth year got the deal done for the Mets. The Angels “made a push to match the offer but maxed out at a three-year commitment.”
McCann’s contract comes in way above where sites such as MLB Trade Rumors (2-years, $20MM) and FanGraphs (2-years, $14MM) thought he would land. Until Realmuto signs his deal, the 31-year-old’s average annual salary of $10 million ranks fourth among catchers in baseball behind Buster Posey, Yasmani Grandal (his former teammate), and Salvador Perez.
Leadership: The stats are one thing. McCann is a veteran who is well-liked by his teammates and could provide another leader in the Mets’ clubhouse. We’ve talked about his improved pitch-framing and we can analyze whether the small sample size in 2020 is enough to believe in his improved catching metrics, but one thing that is abundantly clear is he developed strong relationships with the White Sox pitching staff.
In particular, McCann played a major factor in the development of Lucas Giolito, culminating in the battery pairing working together during Giolito’s no-hitter this past season. In almost an identical number of innings working with McCann versus pitching to other catchers, Giolito’s ERA is nearly 2.5 runs better with McCann (3.23 vs 5.50).
Even if McCann regresses a bit at the plate, if he can build a rapport with the Mets starters like he did in Chicago, it will be a plus. Marcus Stroman was already excited about working with him.
Effectiveness vs lefties: On the list of things the Mets need to add to their roster this offseason, a catcher is a big item, but so is finding right-handed balance for their lineup. McCann’s offensive numbers took a jump since 2019, but one area where he has been consistent, even before then, is against southpaws. He has hit 24 percent above league average against left-handers throughout his career, including a lofty .429 average in a small sample last season.
THE PAYOFF
The Mets needed a catcher. I still think it’s debatable whether McCann is in fact the second best backstop on the market to JT Realmuto, but his recent performance suggests that he is. By passing on the opportunity to use their newfound financial strength to ink Realmuto, Mets fans will wait to see if the McCann signing is simply a small appetizer to a bigger meal that includes George Springer and/or Trevor Bauer. They have roughly $54 million in space under the 2021 luxury tax threshold to make a splash.
Who is Jared Porter?
THE BRIEFING
Disciple of Theo Epstein: Won three World Series rings working with the Red Sox, and another World Series ring with the Chicago Cubs.
Most recently: Worked as vice president and assistant GM with the Diamondbacks since 2017.
Youthful thinking: Porter just turned 41 this past Thanksgiving.
Opportunities: Porter was considered a potential GM candidate for the Cubs under his former collegue Jed Hoyer, as well as a finalist for the Angels’ GM position that was eventually filled by Perry Minasian.
Competition: Mets reportedly picked Porter over longtime Red Sox executive vice president and assistant GM Zack Scott, “who has spent the past 17 seasons with the Red Sox, most recently overseeing the organization’s baseball analytics, baseball systems and pro scouting departments … Michael Hill, Billy Owens and J.P. Ricciardi were the other finalists who interviewed for the Mets’ GM vacancy, before the search tilted toward Porter and Scott.”
LEARN SOME MORE
Finding out who gets to spend Steve Cohen’s money with the Mets has taken longer than expected, but with the hiring of Jared Porter as general manager over the weekend, we finally have a name, a resume, and a face to assign to the incredible task of winning a championship in 3-5 years.
Evaluating front office candidates is a tricky proposition for fans, or media types, alike. There are always a few names who everyone recognizes, and then there are candidates that only the most diehard baseball observers would pretend to know. Maybe you read about someone in an article, or two. And if the author did a good enough job selling that person, you might find yourself believing they are the right pick for the job.
But as fans, we don’t really know. We can watch a player’s performance on the field. If you are committed enough, you can literally watch every pitch of every at-bat. You can scour statistics on spin rates and barrel percentages. Everything you could possibly want to know about a player and their performance is readily available to the public. Therefore, we can make pretty solid judgments on which players are good (George Springer) versus which are really, really good (Mike Trout).
For front office executives, we can look at their team’s track record, something that is easier to do for those who carry the highest title. But how do we know whether an assistant GM or a player development scout was integral to a team’s success? Like comparing the clean-up hitter to the 8th man in a championship lineup, there are always some who contribute more to winning than others.
With a candidate like Jared Porter, who has never held a position higher than vice president within an organization, we are left with anecdotes and organizational lineage to trace his ability to become an effective GM.
Based on the response to his hiring, Porter sounds like the Mother Teresa of baseball—everyone seems to love the young exec who started his professional scouting career as an intern in the Cape Cod League before taking a similar position with the Red Sox and then moving up the ranks to become one of Theo Epstein’s most trusted lieutenants.
Epstein worked side-by-side with Porter while serving as president of both the Red Sox and Cubs. Together they won four World Series championships. Baseball’s top executive offered high praise for the up-and-coming assistant in an interview with The Athletic in 2016, just before Porter took a job with former Red Sox colleague Mike Hazen in Arizona.
Working as a key advisor for Epstein is an education on its own. Porter got to see the day-to-day processes that enabled the former Red Sox and Cubs executive to end two of the longest championship droughts in sports history.
“It’s really important — in my opinion — who you learn from when you are a young executive,” Porter said on the Executive Access podcast in 2019. “It’s like going to graduate school in baseball operations. And you want to go to a good graduate school. Being around Theo, Jed Hoyer, being around Ben Cherington […] seeing how those guys did things, I learned so much.”
And it wasn’t like Porter was just making the Starbucks runs.
“When you’re a young executive working in [Epstein’s] front office, you feel like you’re a big part of it,” Porter said. “I feel like some of my best ideas I had when I was with the Red Sox were when we were doing the Manny Ramirez, Jason Bay, those trades, stuff like that. And I was young, but I felt like I was a big part of it. I don’t think that’s the case everywhere.”
What does being a part of the process mean? Here’s a great anecdote about his work with Rich Hill in 2010. The left-hander’s path to reviving his career began with some subtle advice from Porter.
“Searching for an opportunity, [Rich] Hill asked Boston Red Sox executive Jared Porter to watch him throw. Porter drove to Milton High to find Hill warming up with teenagers. After a few pitches, Porter noticed Hill’s fastball veering out of the strike zone. He suggested Hill move to the third base side of the rubber, an uncommon setup that stoked immediate results.”
After a phone call to his boss, Porter had paved the way for Hill to eventually sign a minor league deal with the Red Sox, the first step on a long journey the pitcher would make before finding success with the Dodgers several years later.
Why did the Mets choose Porter?
If the Mets had it their way, they would have hired a president of baseball operations who would have been part of the process in selecting a GM. However, plans changed after the club failed to gain traction with some of the game’s top candidates who already held high-ranking positions with other teams. Sandy Alderson pivoted toward finding a GM, one who could potentially develop into a bigger role, as he explained back in November.
“I think what we would like to do is find someone as general manager who is capable of growing into the role [of baseball operations president],” Alderson said (via New York Post). “That would be ideal.”
Porter fits the mold as a bright mind with all of the potential to one day hold the title of president. Of course, his longtime relationship with Theo Epstein will generate plenty of speculation over whether the two could eventually reunite in New York with Epstein as the head of baseball operations; but it’s hard to imagine a Hall-of-Fame executive would join a front office in which Sandy Alderson already has the ear of the owner. Sandy won’t be here forever, but as long as he is, it doesn’t seem practical for Epstein to work for anyone other than the man paying the bills.
What should fans expect from Porter?
It’s hard to know completely how Porter will act as general manager. He will obviously receive input from Alderson. The two still need to work together to fill out the rest of his staff.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic in 2019, Porter at least gave a hint into the things he values in constructing a lineup.
He is known as someone who mixes both traditional scouting techniques with modern thinking. He isn’t afraid of new ideas. He has also done the dirty work as a scout—living out of a suitcase, attending multiple games per day, working one-on-one with players in all levels of the minor leagues.
The role of a particular team’s GM often evolves based on the strengths of the person holding the position. New York just experienced what it was like to have a general manager who had a player agent background. With Porter, expect player development to be a tenet to his approach, which is really important, especially considering the time in which he joins the organization.
Why Porter joins the Mets at a challenging time
Steve Cohen didn’t mince words during his introductory press conference as owner of the Mets.
“If we don't win a World Series in 3-5 years, that would be disappointing,” Cohen said.
A lot of people who are paid to comment about baseball have wondered if executives were scared away by this lofty goal. Sports are not entirely different than politics in this regard: leaders generally like to downplay expectations, so the public is pleasantly surprised when they outperform them.
As Mets fans view this offseason as the most exciting since the team was a powerhouse in the eighties, it is actually a challenging time for a new executive to take over as general manager.
Covid has completely changed the landscape across baseball. The minor league system has fundamentally changed — without short-season A and Advanced Rookie ball levels in 2021 — and an entire year of development was wiped out with the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season.
“My whole thought process on age at level, and where to put people, has been blown apart,” one farm director recently told The Athletic.
From the most seasoned and longest-tenured front offices to the fresh face of Jared Porter, organizations will need to decide how to manage the progression of their young prospects. Do they keep them where they were in 2020 since they didn’t get a chance to play much last year? Or do they move them up the ranks?
The Mets have a gap in their system with the majority of their top prospects in the lower ranks of the minors. More than most teams, their progression decisions will impact their core group of young talent.
This is where Porter’s background in pro scouting should be beneficial.
Teams also enter 2021 with a lot of unknowns. How will minor league players look after being mostly out of team view for an entire year? How do you manage ramping them back up into a “normal” season? What injuries have been hiding behind Zoom meetings?
Porter has plenty of roster decisions to make on the major league level, and those will be impacted by the pandemic, too, as injuries have jumped because of the irregular schedule, and they are expected to pose an issue in the coming year. But how he works with his farm and scouting staff to manage the minor league system will be most important in laying the groundwork for the team to turn into a champion, as his new boss demands.
Call to the bullpen
Another podcast recommendation for you. Jared Porter joined MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand on Executive Access in 2019. If you want to get to know the new Mets GM, this is a great listen!
Thanks for reading! More to come on Wednesday!
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