Mets place Zack Scott on administrative leave after DWI arrest
The Mets are without a working general manager once again.
The team placed acting GM Zack Scott on administrative leave “until further notice” on Thursday, hours after Scott pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated.
Club president Sandy Alderson will assume Scott’s responsibilities, the Mets said in a statement, and also plans to be around the team more often.
“There’s some unfortunate things we’ve had as an organization in the offseason and now in season,” manager Luis Rojas said before the Mets hosted the Marlins. “I think we’ve handled it well to navigate through it.
“Today is the most important thing and that’s where we keep it at. That was Sandy’s message today to us, to the coaching staff, and that’s my message to the team.”
Alderson, who previously served as the Mets’ GM from 2010-2018, rejoined the organization last fall to serve as team president with the plan to focus more on the business side. Since then, though, the 73-year-old has added the responsibility of president of baseball operations — after the Mets’ search for one came up empty last fall — and now general manager. His first choice for GM, Jared Porter, was fired after a month when reports surfaced in January that he previously sent a female journalist lewd text messages. Scott had stepped up to serve in that role until he was sidelined on Thursday.
Police said they found Scott sleeping in his car, stopped at a traffic light, around 4 a.m. Tuesday in White Plains — hours after he left a fundraiser at owner Steve Cohen’s home in Greenwich, Conn. Scott was initially “disoriented and confused,” the Westchester County District Attorney’s office said, and admitted to drinking earlier in the night. Scott failed three field sobriety tests, and after he was arrested, refused to submit to a chemical test to determine his blood-alcohol content.
“Zachary Scott made an irresponsible decision to drive while under the influence,” district attorney Miriam E. Rocah said in a statement. “We are thankful nobody was hurt or killed but we will continue to hold people accountable for this kind of reckless and potentially dangerous conduct in Westchester County.”
Scott, 44, was arraigned on Thursday at White Plains City Court while also being charged with stopping on a highway, disobeying a traffic control device and failing to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles of a change in address.
Judge Eric Press suspended Scott’s ability to drive in New York while the case is being investigated. He could not suspend Scott’s license because he presented one from Massachusetts, where Scott had worked for 17 years with the Red Sox before joining the Mets last December.
Scott’s next court date is scheduled for Oct. 7.
Upon learning about Scott’s arrest on Wednesday, the Mets had already said that he would not travel on the team’s upcoming road trip. Assistant general managers Bryn Alderson (Sandy’s son) and Ian Levin are expected to split up the remaining road trips over the final month of the season and figure to take on added responsibilities in Scott’s absence.
Scott’s situation is the latest off-the-field issue for the Mets, who have had a season full of them, especially of late. In the last month alone, Javier Baez and Francisco Lindor had to apologize for a thumbs-down celebration that Baez initially said was a way to boo back at the fans, which Sandy Alderson ripped as “totally unacceptable” in a statement; owner Steve Cohen criticized the team’s unproductive and undisciplined hitting approach in a tweet; and Scott called into question some injured players’ compliance regarding hydration.
The Mets combined those issues with poor play on the field during a 9-19 August, but Rojas hoped his team could avoid the latest distraction to focus on its playoff push.
“There are a lot of challenges that always come in a manager’s way and in a player’s way — in an organization’s way,” Rojas said. “I think you just gotta be ready for anything all the time. Sometimes you can say you’re never prepared for some things to happen, but you go back to staying neutral..”
— Additional reporting by Kevin Sheehan and Gabrielle Fonrouge