Wife of New York Yankees Exec Omar Minaya Was Found Dead in Bathroom, Prosecutor Says

Rachel Minaya, the wife of New York Yankees executive Omar Minaya, was found dead at age 55 in their New Jersey home on July 20, and now a “death investigation” is underway, according to the Bergen County prosecutor in New Jersey.

Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced the death investigation in a July 22 press release, saying that it was being conducted in Harrington Park, New Jersey, by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office “under the direction of Chief Matthew Finck, and the Harrington Park Police Department under the direction of Chief Robert Murphy.”

On Saturday, July 20, 2024, at approximately 3:32 p.m., the Harrington Park Police Department “responded to a 9-1-1 call reporting an unconscious and unresponsive adult female discovered in the bathroom of a private residence. Upon arrival, first responders located 55-year-old Rachel Minaya and attempted to resuscitate her,” Musella wrote in the news release.

The New York Post previously reported that Omar Minaya, the former general manager of the New York Mets, was “not home” when his wife died. The cause of death is not clear, but it was not suicide, The Post reported, noting that the Minayas have two adult sons named Justin and Teddy. Justin Minaya is a forward for the Portland Trailblazers, the NBA reports.

In 2023, MLB.com reported that the Yankees “added another experienced evaluator to their brain trust on Thursday, announcing the appointment of Omar Minaya as the club’s senior advisor to baseball operations.”

“Minaya, 64, was baseball’s first Hispanic general manager when he took control of the Expos from 2002-04. He spent the last year serving as an amateur scouting consultant for Major League Baseball,” MLB.com wrote at that time. “The Queens native was also involved across town with the Mets, as a special assistant to the general manager from 2017-20 and as a club ambassador from 2020-22.” Minaya was “general manager from September 2004 to October 2010” for the Mets, according to MLB.com.

The Prosecutor Wrote That the Death Does Not Appear Suspicious, But the Cause & Manner of Death Are ‘Pending’

Getty New York Mets General Manager Omar Minaya and Rachel Minaya attend the ‘Henry & Me’ New York Premiere at Ziegfeld Theatre on August 18, 2014 in New York City.

According to the prosecutor’s news release, Rachel Minaya “was transported via ambulance to Hackensack Meridian Health Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood, NJ but pronounced deceased at 4:26 p.m.”

“The circumstances involved do not appear suspicious, however a ruling on the cause and manner of death is pending,” the prosecutor’s press release notes.

“Additional details are not available for release while this investigation continues. Prosecutor Musella wishes to thank the Harrington Park Police Department, Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bergen County Medical Examiner Office for their assistance,” the report adds.

According to MLB.com, Omar MInaya “also served as the vice president of baseball operations for the Padres from December 2011 to January 2015, and spent three years as a senior advisor to the executive director of the MLB Players Association from 2015-17.”

Omar Minaya Met His Wife, Rachel Minaya, in a Hair Salon in 1989, a Report Says

GettyThen New York Mets General Manager Omar Minaya accompanied by Rachel Minaya is honored by ‘Seeds of Peace’ at Capitale on March 13, 2008 in New York City.

A 2007 article in “Sports Illustrated” descried how Omar and Rachel Minaya met at a hair salon in 1989. Both were customers, the article says, describing Rachel as “long, lithe and olive-skinned. Part Irish, part African: O’s kind of cocktail.”

Her name then was Rachel Albright and Minaya got her phone number through the hairstylist, SI reported.

“Within a year O had her on Via dell’Amore in Castiglione della Pescaia, requesting her hand in marriage, and three years later they were raising a toddler named Teddy in Texas,” the SI story says. “But she was a Jersey girl, so it was bliss for them both that day in 1997 when O was shown to his new office, in the stadium he’d once stolen into, as the assistant general manager of the New York Mets.”

The story recounts how Omar Minaya spent his childhood in the Dominican Republic before moving to New York to join his dad in America.