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Former New York Mets general manager Zack Scott says that he and owner Steve Cohen “inherited many employees who had culture-related PTSD” upon Cohen’s purchase of the Mets from the Wilpon family in 2020.
“I could tell that I was walking into a situation where there was a lot of PTSD,” Scott said on his Deconstructing Champions podcast released March 28. “I think part of it was [related to] the financial situation off the [Bernie] Madoff situation. They weren’t spending like the market would dictate, and that includes on their people [employees],” Scott said of the Wilpon regime.
Scott spent 17 seasons with the Boston Red Sox before Cohen hired him in December 2020 to be the Mets’ assistant general manager and senior vice president. Scott was elevated to acting general manager for the Mets in January 2021 after the team fired GM Jared Porter because he was found to have sent explicit, unsolicited texts and images to a female reporter.
“They didn’t have a good reputation, they had a reputation as dysfunctional,” Scott said of the Wilpon-owned Mets. “Lots of voices in the room, some of them more informed than others, but powerful so you had to kinda deal with it. Always seeing Jeff [Wilpon] in the room. I don’t know Jeff. That dynamic people would talk about, people from the Mets would talk about so I had some insight into what was there.”
Has The Mets Culture Changed Under Steve Cohen?
While bashing old Mets owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon has become trendy, new owner Steve Cohen has pushed the Mets to the top of MLB’s payroll class while delivering underwhelming on-field and off-field results. They have two losing seasons in Cohen’s three full seasons of ownership, are off to a 1-5 start this season, and have had multiple failed executive hires.
For one there’s the now unemployed Porter, the first general manager hired by Cohen in December 2020. After his texting scandal, the Mets replaced Porter with Scott who lasted one year until the Mets fired him after he was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated.
Police said they found Scott asleep at the wheel in early-morning hours on Aug. 31, 2021. He refused a breathalyzer test and had previously spent that night at a fundraiser held at Steve Cohen’s house in Connecticut. In January 2022, a judge acquitted Scott of the DUI charges.
Mets Now Without a GM After Three Steve Cohen Hires
“The good thing was Steve [Cohen] was in charge now and Steve believes in paying really good people,” Scott said on his podcast as the Mets slump to a 1-5 record to start this season.
After dismissing Porter and Scott, the Mets hired Billy Eppler to be their GM in November 2021. Eppler resigned from his role in October 2023 while he was under investigation by MLB for using the league’s injured list for players who were not injured. MLB has since placed Eppler on its ineligible list for the 2024 season due to violating the injured list rules.
So after three tries, Cohen’s Mets currently have a vacant general manager position. David Stearns, the former GM of the Milwaukee Brewers, was hired last year to be the Mets’ president of baseball operations and has said the Mets won’t hire a GM for the 2024 season.
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