Mets tighten up hiring process JUPITER,

Fla. – The Mets have changed their vetting and hiring process in the wake of three separate harassment scandals that were reported in the past month-plus.

Former Mets GM Jared Porter, former manager Mickey Callaway and former hitting coordinator Ryan Ellis were all recently accused of inappropriate behavior and unwanted sexual advances through reporting from ESPN and The Athletic.

The Mets fired Porter in January within 24 hours after a report of sexual harassment of a female reporter in 2016 surfaced. Callaway, who has served as the Angels pitching coach since 2020, was accused of sexual harassment in Cleveland, New York and Los Angeles. He denied any wrongdoing and remains suspended by the Angels.

Ellis was fired in January after the Mets said “more information” was uncovered about the team’s previous investigation into inappropriate behavior with three women.

Mets team president Sandy Alderson, who hired Porter and Callaway, said he has been “more intentional about communicating with women” as part of the changes the club has made to its vetting process. The day the Mets fired Porter, Alderson revealed in a press conference that he did not speak to any women when considering Porter for club GM.

The second change, Alderson said, is that the Mets are taking their background checks “to a somewhat higher level.” In January, Alderson said the team may consider FBI-level background checks into their new hires.

“There are going to be situations that hopefully we’ll be able to uncover as a result of reaching out to different constituencies, women and others, outside of a single organization,” Alderson said. “We just have to be mindful in each of these cases. We have to be broader in understanding who these people are and what their backgrounds may be.”

Despite three recent harassment scandals and the changes in their hiring practices, the Mets were still aggressive in their pursuit of freeagent pitcher Trevor Bauer this winter. Bauer, who ended up signing with the Dodgers, has a history of inappropriate and aggressive behavior on social media. Alderson indicated he doesn’t feel like the Mets “dodged a bullet” because of Bauer’s online persona, but he understood the “risks” that were associated with it and thought the Mets could “manage” it. Alderson admitted: “Maybe that was naïve.”

The Mets “did a lot of homework” on his social media presence and had internal discussions with groups, including women, to talk about how Bauer would fit into the culture the club is trying to set forth, Alderson said.

“Look, we weren’t being naïve about it in the sense that we can turn this guy around on a dime and turn him into something he wasn’t before,” Alderson said. “But I did think we could manage it as long as we were communicating with him and being attuned to what was going on. We felt we could manage it. It’s possible we wouldn’t have been able to. At this point, we don’t have to worry about it.”

While Bauer is indeed in the rearview mirror, the Mets still must worry about their hiring practices. Alderson is now focused on “a broader assessment of qualifications” for his new hires and he plans to accomplish that by including women in the process.

Who exactly are these women? In Bauer’s case, when the Mets had an internal discussion about his social-media presence, the women were “internal to the organization,” Alderson said. The perceptions they received weren’t necessarily from women in a senior management or front-office role. But Alderson believed it to be “pretty inclusive” as he reached out to several people to talk about Bauer’s controversies. In other cases, these women may be from “other third parties that might have come in contact” with the new-hire in question and won’t necessarily be from within the organization. he people, men and women alike, who will provide the

front office with their perceptions on new hires related to topics like sexual harassment will not be additionally compensated for their opinions, Alderson told the Daily News.

“The outreach to women in and outside of the organization will continue for other additions, but this is not an additional duty for the women and men involved,” Alderson said.