Elephant Rumblings: Mets hire Jared Porter as GM

Good morning afternoon evening, Athletics Nation!

Oakland A’s assistant general manager Billy Owens is firmly on the league’s radar for a future GM job, but it won’t be with the New York Mets in 2021. The Mets hired Jared Porter as their new GM on Saturday, signing him to a four-year contract.

Owens was in consideration for the Mets job, and was one of four candidates known to have interviewed. What’s more, New York’s new president is Sandy Alderson, a former A’s GM who has worked with Owens before, but in the end the Mets went in another direction. Owens was also up for the Angels GM job that eventually went to Perry Minasian.

Porter had been up for that Angels position too, but in the end he found his new home in New York. He spent the last four seasons as the AGM of the Arizona D’Backs, and before that he worked for championship teams with both the Red Sox and Cubs.

The Mets made some other moves in the last few days as well. On the player side they signed catcher James McCann to a four-year, $40 million contract. McCann was an All-Star with the White Sox in 2019 and had a great year in the short 2020 at age 30. Amazin Avenue gives the signing a B grade, for adding a solid player at a position of desperate need.

New York also added a new bench coach, hiring Dave Jauss for the job. Jauss previously served as the Mets bench coach in 2010, and has also sat in that role for the Red Sox, Dodgers, Orioles, and Pirates. This time he’ll do so under new manager Luis Rojas, and he’ll work with a couple of former A’s coaches — Chili Davis is the Mets hitting coach, as he once was for Oakland from 2012-14; and their 1B coach is Tony DeFrancesco, who managed in Triple-A for the A’s and was Oakland’s 3B coach in 2008.

A’s Coverage

• Slusser mailbag: Can Oakland bring back any of its free agents? ($)
• Slusser: Agent Boras says A’s finances require ‘immediate attention,’ Chapman will be ready for 2021 ($)
• Bleav podcast: Host Ben Ross joined by insider Martin Gallegos
• AN: Adam Rosales, Bobby Crosby, Rico Brogna among 2021 Oakland A’s minor league managers
• AN: A’s should absolutely not spend on new outfielder this winter

MLB News & Interest

• Nightengale: Major League Baseball, union at odds on whether start of 2021 season should be delayed
• Drellich: Players’ union answers MLB’s inquiry about shortened 2021 season with swift ‘no’ ($$$)
• Morris: Rangers sign Jharel Cotton to minor league deal
• Vlahos: Mets sign Jerad Eickhoff to minor league deal
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