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Jared Porter

Top D-Backs Execs Received New Contracts

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The Diamondbacks recently extended GM Mike Hazen in hopes of staying off of the upcoming offseason’s hiring carousel. But prying eyes are still scanning an Arizona front office that has performed quite well over the past several seasons.

Assistant general managers Amiel Sawdaye and Jared Porter are among the execs around the game that figure to draw interest from other teams. But neither will be easy to poach, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports.

As it turns out, both Sawdaye and Porter received new deals long before Hazen’s new contract was hammered out. They are each now a full season into extensions, the details of which remain unknown. Both originally landed with the club along with Hazen, in advance of the 2017 season.

The new contracts may not fully protect the club from a front-office raid, as D-Backs CEO Derrick Hall acknowledges. He says that the team “tried to give [Sawdaye and Porter] a little more security” with those deals. But that’s likely just a temporary protection.

Per Hall:

“We are going to try to do all we can to keep them happy, but we know realistically that the point will come when one or both will move on for a higher position. They both are deserving and will get that chance.”

The expectation in Arizona is that Porter and Sawdaye will remain in place unless there’s an opportunity at a clear promotion. As Piecoro understands it, a position serving as a GM beneath a president of baseball operations would likely not qualify. At the same time, there’s obviously some room for interpretation. And Hall says the organization isn’t taking a black-and-white view of the matter. He expects the duo will mostly be interested in exploring outside possibilities that represent “an advancement,” but the club will consider interview requests on a case-by-case basis.

At the moment, there’s only one major opening in baseball — but it’s a big one, and a notable one for these particular executives. The Red Sox are in need of a new baseball ops chief. Both Sawdaye and Porter have deep roots in the Boston organization, which has continued to make baseball ops moves after parting ways with Dave Dombrowski — perhaps suggesting an internal or old-friend hiring is most likely. At this point, though, it’s mostly conjecture. It remains to be seen what other front office opportunities may present themselves.

Mets Notes: 2019 Plans, Matz, General Manager

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Despite a disastrous 2018 season in which only four teams have produced inferior records, the Mets aren’t planning to embark on any kind of rebuild, assistant GM John Ricco tells reporters (Twitter link, with video, via MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo). Ricco suggests that while the next two months “won’t be the be-all and end-all,” they’ll help to evaluate players such as Jeff McNeil as the team looks to determine its areas of need in the offseason — most specifically on the position-player side of the equation. Ricco adds that he believes Dominic Smith will be a part of the team moving forward, stating that he’s “getting more experience” in left field. While the Mets will be facing a significant number of holes in the offseason and myriad health uncertainties, Ricco states plainly: “We’re going to try to be competitive and be a playoff team next year.”

More on the Mets…

  • DiComo also writes in a full column that while an MRI ruled out any structural damage in Steven Matz’s forearm and elbow, the left-hander is nonetheless expected to require a stint on the 10-day disabled list due to a “mild flexor-pronator strain.” It doesn’t appear that the team currently believes Matz will face an extended absence, with both Ricco and manager Mickey Callaway suggesting that a DL placement would be a “conservative” approach to the injury. If and when Matz does land on the disabled list, DiComo notes that right-hander Corey Oswalt is the likeliest candidate to replace him.
  • Ricco spoke with the New York Post’s Kevin Kernan about perhaps the most critical component to his team’s 2019 success: injury prevention. “A lot of this stuff is systemic,” Ricco acknowledged, emphasizing a need to change the mindsets, routines and habits of his players as well as the team’s internal medical processes. A focus on younger players isn’t necessarily a cure-all for the Mets’ injury woes, he noted, as there’s been no shortage of younger players incurring notable injuries troubles (e.g. Matz, Noah Syndergaard, Michael Conforto). As Kernan writes, while Mickey Callaway has had some hiccups in his first exposure to managing at the MLB level, he’s also been vocal about some of the team’s internal organizational deficiencies — a trait which Ricco calls “one of the reasons we brought him in.”
  • Following up a recent report from colleague Buster Olney, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets that former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington is increasingly mentioned as a “likely top candidate” for the Mets’ GM vacancy. Crasnick adds that Diamondbacks assistant GM Jared Porter, also a former high-ranking Red Sox executive, is also “generating some buzz” with regard to that opening. Currently, the Mets have the trio of Ricco and special assistants Omar Minaya and J.P. Ricciardi heading up baseball operations in place of Sandy Alderson, who stepped away from the role to undergo treatment for a cancer relapse. That arrangement, however, is not permanent, though Ricco himself figures to be among the candidates to take the GM chair in Queens in the offseason.

‘Lucky Charm’ Jared Porter On Metrics, D-Backs’ 2017 Roster

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This is the second half of an interview with Diamondbacks assistant GM Jared Porter, conducted by MLBTR contributor Brett Ballantini. Click here to read Part 1. 

In the second part of the conversation, Porter addresses the intricacies of his job, including his go-to stats, and taking the “macro” view on the Diamondbacks’ future:

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You were with the Cubs when the Diamondbacks traded for Shelby Miller, which from the jump seemed a significant overpay by Arizona. What was your impression?

It’s impossible for me to weigh in heavily due to the fact that I wasn’t here and don’t know all of the circumstances surrounding the trade. With that said, we are really excited to have a pitcher of Shelby Miller’s quality in our rotation. It’s been great getting to know Shelby as a person over the course of the last month or so and has been exciting to watch him feature such explosive stuff in his first two spring outings. He’s in impeccable physical shape and has a great mindset heading into the season. We’re lucky to have Shelby on the Diamondbacks.

Analytics is a rabbit hole that ultimately yields greater and greater understanding of the game. We’re so far from sheer batting average or pitching wins now, we can never go back. But clearly, each front office doesn’t just have a Baseball-Reference stock ticker of WAR numbers that steers evaluation. There are nuances wrapped in projections inside of data. Even among your own equfront office, with a relatively flat hierarchy, each of you must have your own pet data or go-to projections. If you can give me the Shake n’ Bake without revealing its flavor, what is your go-to stat?

Great question. I don’t think I have a “go-to stat,” but what I like the most is the data that helps prove things that are hard for our eyes to see or that can be hard to gauge within a scouting report. Player evaluation is so tough, even for the best evaluators, that any advantages we can find and use are so important.

For me, I’ve really been gravitating towards run prevention data lately. Some examples of this are PITCHf/x data (movement qualities of the pitch), pitch results data (how a pitcher’s stuff impacts the way hitters put balls into play) and pitch sequencing data (how a pitcher uses his pitches); defensive data and defensive positioning data; and catcher defense analysis.

One area that tends to get over-reported is catcher framing. While I’m a firm believer in the value of catcher framing and the impact it makes, the story often stops with catcher framing data and not enough attention is paid to the importance of game-calling and game leadership when it comes to evaluating catchers. A big part of a pitcher’s conviction in the stuff he’s throwing has to do with how the game is called and led behind the plate.

Your most significant trade of the offseason sent Jean Segura to the Seattle Mariners for Taijuan Walker and Ketel Marte. Was that a matter of selling high on Segura, buying low on Walker, or a little bit of both?

We’re really excited to have Taijuan Walker and Ketel Marte in Diamondbacks uniforms right now. We gave up a very talented and well-rounded impact player in Jean Segura as the centerpiece of the deal for Seattle, but continuing to add young, controllable, high-ceiling players like Taijuan and Ketel will make our talent pool deeper and more sustainable from a macro viewpoint.

Taijuan is a pitcher who all three organizations I’ve worked for have tried to acquire over the last two or three years. Getting to know him a bit over the course of the last month has given us a lot of confidence in the person he is. He wants to be great, and he wants to win. We’re very excited to have such a talented athlete in our program.

You have an exhausting number of responsibilities, overseeing player personnel, baseball operations, and the medical staff. But arguably your more significant responsibility with Arizona is in pro scouting. I’m guessing that amateur scouting—confirming blue chips or uncovering hidden treasure—is significantly different from pro scouting, where we imagine a half-dozen guys with radar guns trying to pick the bones of this summer’s early rebuilders. How do the roles of amateur and pro scouts differ?

The nature of all scouting is the same: Consistently beat other teams by evaluating and recommending talented, championship-caliber players for your organization. The types of scouting that I have the most significant responsibility for within Arizona are professional (other teams’ minor league players, and the independent leagues), major league (other teams’ major league players, and advance scouting), and international professional (typically NPB, KBO, and Cuban players who don’t fall under the amateur cap).

There are a few major differences between amateur and professional scouting that stand out. Every year there is a draft, so it’s a fact that an enormous pool of amateur players will be selected and signed to play professional baseball every June. For this reason, there’s a culminating point in every draft cycle. We don’t have as much information on amateur players. Although the information available is growing at an astonishing rate, there still isn’t as much information available in comparison to professional players. We haven’t had the opportunity to see amateur players compete against their professional peers on a daily basis yet, so the accuracy of evaluations is more volatile and higher risk. It becomes critical to mitigate the risk as much as you can while continuing to maximize the upside and the potential impact of players you’re bringing in.

On the professional and major league side, we have significantly more information, but oftentimes the assets you’re giving up in player or financial capital are so great that it makes the margin for error within these decisions minuscule. Also, the player pool to select from is more finite. Professional scouting is more of an ongoing process with regards to acquisition. Although there are a few big dates, like the Trade Deadline or Winter Meetings, the professional player acquisition period is literally 365 days a year, because a transaction can happen at any time.

Which scouting is a greater challenge, or more fun? 

The best way for me to describe it is that it’s all awesome, and it’s all really challenging. You can never learn enough about player evaluation with regards to organizational building and roster construction.

You have inherited a Diamondbacks team that seems a given to put 69 wins in the rearview mirror, with not just superstars like Zack Greinke, Paul Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollock, but quite a few budding stars as well. Obviously, you’ve got a long-term vision of remaking the team, but how jazzed are you regarding your immediate, 2017 prospects?

We’re all very excited about the talent on our 40-man roster and certainly feel fortunate to inherit so many talented and athletic players with high ceilings. [Rookie manager] Torey Lovullo has set a great tone in camp, with everyone being part of a unified group headed in the same, positive direction. It’s been a point of emphasis for us this offseason to put a well-rounded, versatile, and deep group of major league players together going into the season. It’s still roughly a month to go before Opening Day, but so far, so good. Personally, I’ve enjoyed getting to know our players better as competitors and people, and am excited to continue to do so.

I asked Dave Stewart this question last year, and for all his intensity and aggressiveness, he surprised me with a muted answer. With specific regard to making an offer to a guy like [ex-Los Angeles Dodger] Greinke, is there any additional incentive beyond what he can do for the Diamondbacks—does taking a valuable player away from a direct rival color your decision-making at all? Or, asked another way, are the battles for wins fought exclusively between the lines, or can a front-office guy steal a couple of wins for the team and contribute the same value as a hitter with a knack for a game-winning RBI?

No, I don’t see it this way at all. It’s our job to help build a sustainable, deep, and well-rounded Diamondbacks team regardless of what other teams in our division are doing. If we do that, it doesn’t matter what other teams are doing because we’ll be able to provide Torey and our coaching staff with the necessary weapons to navigate a 162-game schedule, and hopefully more.

There is some nuance within the season with regards to matchups, maybe stocking your bullpen with a certain type of reliever for a series or two, picking the right time to spot start a guy, or adding a bat that might match up well for a certain stretch. But when it comes to the macro decisions, we have to constantly focus on making our team better and not worry about the others.

Fortunately, this is something I was able to see first-hand in Boston when I was younger due to the incredible depth and talent in the AL East at the time. I never saw Theo give in to any pressures that might have been there to match our division rivals, and I feel that as a result our internal player pool was always deep and sustainable, with great young players ready to make an impact at the major league level.

You were hired by the Red Sox in 2004 and, poof, there goes an 86-year Curse of the Bambino. The Cubs snapped you up in 2016 and, boom, the longest streak in the history of pro sports, 108 years without a title, is gone. Every time you join a new team, they win a World Series. Arizona’s drought of 15 seasons is slightly less dramatic than what you’ve conquered already. So, pressure’s on, are you going to make it three-for-three?

I wish it were that easy. I’ve been fortunate to work around great people and for teams with great players in Boston and Chicago. My hunch tells me that it’s been more about the players than me being a curse breaker! We’ll chalk it up to good timing.

With that said, we have a talented group here in Arizona and we are working daily to create the culture both in the office and in the clubhouse through Torey that we’ve seen lead to sustainable success in Boston and Chicago.

Follow Brett Ballantini on Twitter @PoetryinPros

D-Backs Assistant GM Jared Porter Traces His Path to Arizona

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A 69-win season spelled an abrupt end for the D-backs front office regime that was led by chief baseball officer Tony La Russa (who remains in the organization in another capacity), general manager Dave Stewart and senior vice president De Jon Watson. 

Enter new Arizona GM Mike Hazen, who tapped former standout Boston execs Amiel Sawdaye and Jared Porter, along with former Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo, to remake a franchise that may have lost its way.

We caught up to Porter, Arizona’s senior vice president and assistant GM, in order to get a peek into the changes the Diamondbacks are implementing this season.

But in part one of this interview, Porter traces his remarkable fortune in the game so far, including four championships (three in Boston, one with the Chicago Cubs). Is he a lucky charm? Well, Diamondbacks fans can be heartened that in his first seasons in Boston and Chicago, he helped the clubs snap World Series droughts of 86 and 108 years, respectively:

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Much is made of the Boston roots of Mike Hazen, Amiel Sawdaye, you, and even new manager Torey Lovullo. Given the different roles you all played with the Red Sox, did you conceive of a time when you might all be together again, with commensurate promotions?

I’m very fortunate to have been able to learn from and work with so many talented executives in Boston. It’s one of those things where you don’t realize just how much your career can be shaped by who you work for and learn from early on—and it’s immeasurable.

Jared Porter, Mike Hazen, Sam Eaton | Photo courtesy of Arizona Diamondbacks

In my case, I happened to get an internship working with and for the best executive in baseball history, Theo Epstein. The culture that Theo created in Boston (and now in Chicago, with Jed Hoyer) is so unique. I feel like I’ve been part of an incredible and captivating baseball operations think tank ever since I started as an intern with Boston in 2004, with everybody working as hard as they can and trying to learn as much as they can, with the freedom and comfort to express opinions and explore both old and new ways of thought with regards to player evaluation, acquisition, development and analysis. I’m forever grateful to Ben Cherington, for hiring me and giving me my first opportunity.

That think tank culture is certainly something we are going to try as hard as we can to replicate in Arizona. Along with others such as Theo, Jed, Ben, Raquel Ferreira, Brian O’Halloran, Jason McLeod, and Allard Baird, Mike and Amiel were big parts of that culture, with their fingerprints all over Boston’s World Series championships and current roster.

Did you have an inkling that you were valued to such a degree by Mike that he would seek you out in Arizona as he did? When you left Boston after the 2015 season, leaving them behind for a year, was there any sort of exit interview/between the lines/wink-wink where you had a sense you might work together again down the line?

Things never seem to happen in a linear manner when it comes to a career path, so there was never any sort of “wink-wink,” but Mike, Amiel, and myself have always been very close and have always enjoyed working together. With that said, the preexisting relationships I had when I went to the Cubs along with some very strong ones I developed over the year-plus I spent in Chicago made it a very tough place to leave, on both a personal and professional level.

I think the Cubs will be just fine without me, though!

What was your adjustment moving from a Ben Cherington front office in Boston to Theo’s in Chicago? Given the enormous successes both teams have had, there must be a lot of similarities. But is there a single contrast that stands out?

We all worked together for so many years in Boston, making the front offices very similar in style and goals. It was a smooth transition from Boston to Chicago, given the similar styles and scouting/development infrastructures coming from what Theo instilled in all of us in Boston.

The biggest difference between the two front offices is that the Cubs have really pressed forward with regards to analytics and new forms of data analysis, because Theo was able to pick up from he left off in Boston while starting from scratch in Chicago. Data analysis is nonstop for them, with a perfectly designed platform to access all of this information. From minor league coaches, to scouts, to major league coaching staff, the analytics make everyone more efficient and knowledgeable. It’s an area that we have already started, and will continue to press forward with, on the Diamondbacks.

Does Theo give you crap for walking into a 103-win team and cherry picking a ring?

[Laughing] No, he doesn’t. But I give it to myself!

Admittedly, it was great timing for me. I’m really lucky that he and Jed gave me the chance to be a part of winning a World Series with the Cubs. The ring is a nice bonus, but the amount I was able to learn being around those guys again for another year-plus, and being ingrained into the great culture they (along with manager Joe Maddon) have created in Chicago is my biggest takeaway. Theo’s probably given me more crap for cherry picking from the culture, and I don’t blame him. They have a great thing going there.

As long as we’re talking Cubs, can you give me your personal Game 7 experience?

Oh man, what an incredible game and series. [Ex-Cubs pitcher and current team exec] Ryan Dempster said it best on the bus ride from Progressive Field to the airport after the game, something to the effect of, “There’s no way the Cubs were going to win their first World Series in 108 years without some sort of dramatic story within the game.”

And it’s true. The twists and turns throughout the Series and specifically in Game 7 were captivating and gut-wrenching. The Indians were and are a great team; it could have gone either way. I’ve been fortunate to be a part of a few world champions over the years, so the best part for me is seeing players, coaches, front office executives and scouts win one for the first time. To me, that provides an incredible amount of gratitude. It serves as a reminder of how tough it is to be part of a team that wins it, and also how lucky all of us who work in baseball are to be a part of it.

Speaking of breaking 108-year droughts, do you practice any particular superstitions in spite of being an analytics-driven kind of fella?

I don’t want to say too much here—and acknowledging that it’s the players who win games on the field—but we’ll do just about anything in the front office suite during a game to change our luck and try to will the team to get a few runs. Typically it involves a lot of hot dogs, chocolate cake, and even the occasional vegetable crudité and tapenade combo.

Part two of this Q&A, which focuses on Porter’s preferred statistics/metrics for player evaluation, his front-office responsibilities in Arizona and the Diamondbacks’ 2017 roster, will run tomorrow afternoon.

Follow Brett Ballantini on Twitter: @PoetryinPros.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Sachs / Arizona Diamondbacks communications department.

Phillies Hire Bryan Minniti From Diamondbacks; Arizona Hires Jared Porter From Cubs

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7:43pm: Minniti had a two-year offer to stay in Arizona, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter), but elected to seek a new opportunity elsewhere.

2:13pm: A pair of notable front office changes took place today, as the Phillies announced that they’ve hired D-backs assistant GM Bryan Minniti as a special assistant to general manager Matt Klentak. The Diamondbacks clearly already had a replacement for Minniti lined up, however, as they announced this afternoon that they’ve hired Cubs director of professional scouting Jared Porter and named him senior vice president and assistant general manager.

The moves come as just one in a flurry of promotions and hires for each team. Philadelphia has promoted Jorge Velendia to the same title as Minniti, hired a “Mental Skills” coach and made yet another add to its ever-growing analytics department, as PhillyVoice.com’s Ryan Lawrence explores in greater detail. The D-backs, meanwhile, announced that they’ve promoted director of player personnel Mike Bell to vice president of player development and named former Major League infielder Josh Barfield their new assistant director of pro scouting.

Minniti will bring the Phillies an executive with seven seasons as an assistant general manager under his belt. He comes from an analytical background, having double-majored in mathematics and statistics at the University of Pittsburgh and has been working in front offices since being hired as an intern by the Pirates back in 2001. The 36-year-old worked with the D-backs for the past two seasons and spent the previous five years with the Nationals, working on matters such as statistical analysis, budgeting and contract negotiations, per Arizona’s media guide.

The addition of Porter to the D-backs’ front office, meanwhile, gives the team another big-name executive with Red Sox roots to add to its leadership group. Porter was the Cubs’ scouting director this past season but is quite familiar with newly minted Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen and newly hired assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye from the time the trio spent together with the Red Sox. Porter spent a dozen years working in the Red Sox organization and was the team’s director of pro scouting from 2012-15.

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