The wife of New York Yankees executive and former New York Mets general manager Omar Minaya reportedly was found dead in her New Jersey home on Saturday.
Rachel Minaya’s cause of death has not been released at this time. Death by suicide, however, was ruled out, the New York Post reports it was told by a person who was briefed by the Minaya family. That person is not law enforcement or the coroner’s office, so cause of death is still unconfirmed and the details surrounding this woman’s death is still a mystery.
The office of Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella in Bergen County, where the Minayas live, released a statement Monday saying the death did not appear to be suspicious.
A native of New Jersey, Rachel Minaya was 55.
How Did Rachel Minaya Die?
On Saturday, July 20, reporting a woman who had passed out in the bathroom of a residence.
Police attempted to revive Rachel Minaya before she was taken to Meridian Health Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood by ambulance. She was pronounced dead at 4:26 p.m., prosecutors said.
The baseball executive was not home at the time of his wife’s death.
The Minayas have two sons – Justin and Teddy. Justin is a pro hoops player in the Portland Trail Blazers’ organization with the Rip City Remix of the G League.
Understandably, Minaya was listed as inactive for the Blazers’ game Sunday against the Houston Rockets. In four Summer League games, Minaya has averaged 20.6 minutes, 8.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists.
Omar, a baseball lifer, met Rachel in 1989 at a Dominican hair salon in New York City, and within the next year, they were engaged, according to a Sports Illustrated profile of Omar Minaya from 2007:
“One day in 1989 O was getting a haircut in a Manhattan unisex salon. Nearby reclined a female customer, long, lithe, and olive-skinned. Part Irish, part African: O’s kind of cocktail.
Dilemma. Richard, the hairstylist, was looking at O the way O was looking at her. “Lay low, Richard,” he’d had to murmur. “Just a haircut.” How, now, could O ask him to ask her for her phone number? Easy—he’s O. Richard sighed and returned with Rachel Albright’s number.
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.”
Who Is Baseball Executive Omar Minaya?
Minaya is known as one of the most respected minds in baseball and got his start as a scout for the Texas Rangers before joining the Mets as an assistant general manager under Steve Phillips in the mid-1990s and helped build a World Series contender, making deep runs in the postseason behind players such as Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza, Edgardo Alfonzo, and Al Leiter.
In 2002, Minaya became the Montreal Expos’ general manager in the organization’s waning days before becoming the Washington Nationals, and continued his magic touch, helping them rebuild and become an 80-win playoff contender.
While the team never made the playoffs, as there was no wild card back then, his acumen and talent led to him being brought back to the Mets as general manager and remained in that position until the end of 2010 season. The Mets had some promising seasons under manager Willie Randolph and also some historic collapses, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series. The Adam Wainright curveball that buckled the knees of Carlos Beltran will forever bring pain to Mets fans.
Minaya then served as senior vice president of baseball operations for the San Diego Padres until 2015, had a third stint with the Mets from 2017 to 2022 and then joined the Yankees as a special adviser in 2023.
More information will surely surface about this tragedy.