NEW YORK – New York Mets acting general manager Zack Scott was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated, hours after attending a fundraiser at team owner Steve Cohen's house.
Scott was arrested on a DUI charge around 4:15 a.m. Tuesday in suburban White Plains, New York. Police found him asleep at the wheel of his SUV at a traffic light and determined he was intoxicated, White Plains police Capt. James Spencer said. He said Scott refused a breathalyzer test.
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Scott, 44, was booked and released and is due in court Thursday morning.
The arrest was first reported by the New York Post.
The Mets on Wednesday confirmed an ESPN report that Scott was at a fundraiser for the team’s Amazin’ Mets Foundation at Cohen’s house in Connecticut on Monday night, which was also attended by players. Scott left when the event ended around 8:30 or 9 p.m., the team said.
“We were surprised and deeply disappointed to learn this morning about an alleged DUI involving Zack Scott,” the Mets said in a statement. “We take this matter very seriously. Zack will not be traveling with the team for our upcoming road trip while we learn more and determine next steps.”
Scott was hired as the Mets' assistant general manager last offseason to work under close friend and former colleague Jared Porter. Scott was promoted to acting GM in January after Porter was fired following revelations he sent sexually explicit text messages and images to a female reporter in 2016 while working for the Chicago Cubs.
Scott had spent the previous 17 seasons with Boston, where he worked alongside Porter under former Red Sox and Chicago Cubs baseball boss Theo Epstein.
Porter and Scott were brought in during a reshaping of New York’s front office under Cohen, a hedge fund manager who had been a minority owner of the team since 2012. Cohen purchased the club from the Wilpon and Katz families in November.
Mets fans celebrated Cohen’s ascendance to majority owner, but his first year in charge has brought about the same sort of embarrassing controversy and drama that plagued the club under the control of Fred and Jeff Wilpon.
Porter was fired 38 days after he was hired as general manager. A string of seemingly endless injuries hindered the team early in the season. Star slugger Pete Alonso was brought to tears when popular hitting coach Chili Davis was fired in May, and the offense has continued to struggle. Despite all that, the Mets led the NL East for nearly three months before collapsing in August and falling out of playoff position.
Scott has publicly criticized players for not following injury prevention protocols provided by the training staff. Cohen tweeted on Aug. 18 that “it’s hard to understand how professional hitters can be this unproductive.”
And star shortstop Francisco Lindor — acquired from Cleveland and given a $341 million, 10-year deal in Cohen’s first major on-field transaction — has flopped in the batter’s box and been at the center of contention elsewhere.
Lindor got into a heated exchange with teammate Jeff McNeil during a game in May, a dustup Lindor tried to explain away as an argument about whether a rat or raccoon had been spotted in an adjacent hallway. Scott said their public handling of the disagreement was “probably not ideal."
Lindor and trade-deadline acquisition Javier Báez issued separate apologies Tuesday after Báez revealed that a thumbs-down celebration used by the team recently was actually a dig at Mets fans who had booed New York players. Lindor was jeered again in his first at-bat after saying he was sorry.
The Mets postponed their scheduled game Wednesday night against Miami a day earlier amid forecasts of heavy rain. They are set to conclude their homestand Thursday night against the Marlins before opening an eight-game trip at Washington on Friday night.
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AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.
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