The death of 27-year-old Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs was already a terrible story, and no ugliness that comes in the fallout could match the tragedy of Skaggs’ death, itself.
But that is not to say there isn’t going to be so much ugliness coming out of the trial of former Angels employee Eric Kay, who has been charged with supplying the drugs that led to Skaggs’ death. Already, on the first day of the trial, there was a startling allegation by the defense that pitcher Matt Harvey supplied his former teammate the drugs:
Full story on Day 1 of the US v Eric Kay, who is charged with causing the death of the Angels' Tyler Skaggs. Both sides say multiple players will testify they got drugs from Kay. And the defense says Matt Harvey may have provided drugs to Skaggs.https://t.co/w2B9UoyqEj
— T.J. Quinn (@TJQuinnESPN) February 9, 2022
From the article:
While laying out the defense’s version of events, Wynn told the jury that Kay saw Skaggs snort lines of crushed pills the night he died, two blue and one pink, and asked Skaggs where the pink pill had come from.
“Tyler Skaggs told him, ‘Those are Percocets I got from Harvey,'” Wynn said. The government did not name Harvey during its opening statement, but said a player will testify that he had previously given Skaggs pink pills but denied that he did so before the fatal road trip. Harvey is expected to testify as a government witness later this week. Harvey’s agent, Scott Boras, said he was unable to comment.
No Percocet was found in Skaggs’ system, but the government identified one of the drugs found in Skaggs’ room as the prescription opioid.
More players will be testifying in the trial, which is about Kay’s role in Skaggs’ death, but which touches on so much more, from drug culture in sports to the opioid crisis generally to organizational accountability. It’s such a sad story, and uncovering how it really happened is going to be troubling, but also important.