Former New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey is expected to be named as a potential drug source of the late Tyler Skaggs — the Los Angeles Angels pitcher who died of a drug overdose on July 1, 2019.
ESPN’s TJ Quinn was first to report that the defense attorney of Eric Kay — the former Angels director of communications that is accused of supplying Skaggs with the opioids that led to his overdose — claimed that Skaggs was seen snorting lines of crushed pills (two blue, one pink) the night he died.
“Tyler Skaggs told him, ‘Those are Percocets I got from Harvey,'” Kay’s attorney, Reagan Wynn, said (h/t Quinn).
Percocets were not found in Skaggs’ system, but prescription opioids were found in his hotel room. Per the coroner’s report, Skaggs had choked to death on his vomit with a toxic mix of alcohol and the drugs fentanyl and oxycodone found in his system.
Harvey is expected to testify as a government witness later this week.
[ALSO READ: Mets bring back Old Timer’s Day for 60th anniversary season]
The now-32-year-old made 12 starts during his lone year with the Angels in 2019 and was with the club during the road trip down in Texas for a series against the Rangers where Skaggs died. He is currently a free agent after spending the 2021 campaign with the Baltimore Orioles.
The prosecution maintains that Skaggs — who faces charges of drug distribution and drug conspiracy — was the only person who went to the pitcher’s room the night of his death.
Where Kay obtained the drugs is unknown, but the defense alleges that he would occasionally get them from the umpires’ clubhouse attendant at Angel Stadium, Hector Vazquez.
Pitcher Andrew Heaney — who spent a portion of the 2021 season with the Yankees and was also teammates with Skaggs and Harvey on the 2019 Angels — testified on Tuesday, outlining the team’s usual travel plans that year before denying that Skaggs was an opioid user.
The trial is expected to run approximately two weeks.
