The Minnesota Twins have suspended pitching coach Neil Allen indefinitely with pay, following his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving.
Minor league pitching coordinator Eric Rasmussen, who’s based in Fort Myers, Florida, at the team’s spring training and minor league facility, was named the interim pitching coach. The Twins were off Thursday, traveling to Seattle for a three-game series starting Friday.
The Twins issued a statement acknowledging awareness of the pending DWI charge, but they did not comment further.
”The matter will be handled in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Minnesota Twins,” the statement said.
Allen is in his second season with the Twins. The 58-year-old pitched in the major leagues for 11 seasons, mostly as a reliever and beginning with the New York Mets in 1979. He logged 988 1/3 innings with a 3.88 ERA, also with the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox before a stint in 1989 with the Cleveland Indians. Allen, a recovering alcoholic, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis in an interview last year that he hadn’t had a drink since 1994.
According to the Hennepin County Sherriff’s Office, Allen was arrested at 1:59 a.m. Thursday for third degree driving while impaired and refusal to submit to a sobriety test. He was stopped in his Infinity QX56 sports utility vehicle in downtown Minneapolis, about 10 blocks east of Target Field where the Twins played Kansas City the previous afternoon.
According to county jail records, Allen was booked at 3:48 a.m. and released from custody at 10:32 a.m.