Zack Scott won't be back with Mets, source says

Mets acting general manager Zack Scott, who had been on paid administrative leave for two months after a drunk-driving arrest, officially has been let go by the organization, a source said Monday.

That removes yet another name — albeit a long-shot choice — from the Mets’ month-old search for a head of baseball operations. It is not clear how close owner Steve Cohen and team president Sandy Alderson are to settling on a new baseball boss.

Scott was informed of the Mets’ decision on Monday, a person familiar with the decision said. That sudden change in his status was an about-face from the Mets’ previous position, which was to not publicly discuss Scott or do anything about his employment until the legal proceedings were resolved. The trial for his driving while intoxicated charge is scheduled for Dec. 8.

Hired by the Mets last December, Scott, then a Red Sox assistant GM, was a finalist for the Mets’ GM job during their first Cohen-era executive search. When they chose Jared Porter, Scott wound up coming aboard anyway as the assistant general manager. He was elevated to acting GM in January when Porter was fired for having sent inappropriate texts to a female reporter years earlier.

Scott led the Mets’ day-to-day baseball operations through most of the season, but at 4:17 a.m. on Aug. 31, after being found asleep behind the wheel at a traffic light in White Plains, he was charged with DWI and three lesser violations. He pleaded not guilty on Sept. 2, when the Mets put him on leave. His only court appearance since then — on Oct. 7 — resulted in the trial being set for Dec. 8.

SNY was the first to report that the Mets were dumping Scott.

Having burned through two GMs in Cohen’s first year owning the team — three if you count Alderson’s pair of stints as the interim head, four if you count Brodie Van Wagenen, who was fired the day Cohen took over — they continue to look for a more permanent answer.

Among the rival executives they reportedly are considering: Rays vice president of player development and international scouting Carlos Rodriguez and Red Sox executive vice president/assistant GM Raquel Ferreira.

Rodriguez has been with Tampa Bay since 2010, working under highly regarded baseball execs Andrew Friedman (now with the Dodgers) and Erik Neander. His career followed an amateur/international scouting track before adding player development to his responsibilities two seasons ago.

Ferreira has been with the Red Sox for more than two decades and in 2019 became the fourth female to hold the title of assistant GM. She assists in all areas of baseball operations.

The GM meetings are scheduled to begin next Monday in Carlsbad, California. The Mets have not publicly set a deadline of making a hire by then.