NEWSLETTER
December 12 UPDATE: Actually, he’s headed to the Mets. Original post follows.
No official updates on the Chicago Cubs GM search, but Sahadev Sharma wrote about the process and not only did he include former Marlins President Michael Hill as a possible candidate (we’d speculated as much, and Mark Gonzales also wrote about the possibility), but he also got into the guy he figures to be the early favorite.
You’ve heard the name before, and not only because he was briefly a member of the Cubs front office. There are a lot of reasons Jared Porter makes sense as the next Cubs GM. From Sharma:
[T]he heavy favorite for GM is a familiar face: Jared Porter. Many around baseball believe Porter, who was most recently a finalist for the Angels GM job (which went to Perry Minasian), is ready for a more prominent role. While joining the Cubs would not put him atop an organization’s baseball operations department, it would be a significant jump for Porter in a decision-making role in a more visible market.
Porter, who holds the same title as [Amiel] Sawdaye in Arizona but with a focus on pro scouting, was the Cubs’ director of professional scouting in 2016 and also worked with Hoyer in Boston. That previous relationship and Porter’s familiarity with the organization would help allay some of the concerns Hoyer mentioned about onboarding a new GM during a pandemic.
Ultimately, Hoyer may be methodical in making this decision. With this offseason expected to be slow-moving in general, it’s likely Hoyer will take his time. But it’s clear that Porter’s credentials, along with his history and relationship with Hoyer, make him a leading candidate to join an ever-evolving Cubs front office.
Porter was with Hoyer and Theo Epstein for a number of years with the Red Sox, and then was the Cubs’ director of pro scouting for about a year before heading off to Arizona for an Assistant GM gig. I love what the Diamondbacks have done to rebuild since then, and the idea of Porter coming back to the Cubs with some additional experience and knowledge from the DBacks is pretty compelling. Throw in the fact that Hoyer has mentioned one of the most important aspects of the GM gig is going to be the ability to have a seamless, easy, constructive, totally-trusting relationship (like he had with Epstein), and you could see why Porter would make additional sense.
I will add that Sharma is very tapped into the Cubs front office, so when he writes things like this – with a lot of specificity – I pay extra close attention. Whether the gig winds up going to Porter or not, you can safely believe that he is under very serious consideration.
A little more on Porter here in a Q&A with Ken Rosenthal, and here in an interview with Brian Kenny:
