Former Mets pitcher Matt Harvey has been named by the defense as a possible drug source in the case U.S. v. Eric Kay.
Opening statements took place at the U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, TX on Tuesday as the federal trial into the 2019 death of former Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs begins. Eric Kay, the team’s former communications director, is facing two felony counts of distributing a controlled substance and distribution of a controlled substance resulting in Skaggs’ death.
Former Angels players including Harvey, Andrew Heaney, C.J. Cron, Cam Bedrosian, and Garrett Richards are listed as potential government witnesses. The government says most players are expected to testify about their knowledge of Kay’s distribution of oxycodone to players. Harvey is expected to testify about communications with Kay.
Skaggs was found dead in a Southlake, Texas, hotel room on July 1, 2019, when the team was in town to play the Texas Rangers.
Kay’s attorney claims that Harvey is a possible drug source for Skaggs and that Kay asked Skaggs the night he died where he got pink pills. Kay says Skaggs told him “those are Percocets I got from Harvey.”
In 2019, during an ESPN investigation into Skaggs’ death, a source from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner said there was no Percocet in Skaggs’ system when he died. A Percocet is oxycodone and acetaminophen. No acetaminophen was found.
The government claims that only Kay could have given Skaggs the drugs he took when he died and did not name Harvey. But, an unnamed player will testify he had given Skaggs pink pills, but not on the fatal road trip.
The government says Kay was providing opioids to multiple players. They are expected to be named. One of the claims includes that Kay received pills from the umpire’s clubhouse attendant at the ballpark.
Harvey will be called as a government witness later this week as they attempt to prove Kay ran a distribution ring within the team. The defense will try and prove Kay got drugs at the request of Skaggs and other players in order to feed his own habit.
Additionally, the defense will argue that even if the government can show that Kay gave Skaggs the drugs he ingested that night, there is no way to prove that the drugs are what caused his death. Skaggs did not overdose, instead, he asphyxiated on his own vomit while in the team hotel room. He had oxycodone, fentanyl, and grain alcohol in his system according to the toxicology report.
In the same 2019 ESPN investigation, Kay told Drug Enforcement Administration agents he gave Skaggs oxycodone pills before the team left for the series in Texas. Kay believes the drugs he saw Skaggs snort came from another source.
Harvey spent 2019 as a member of the Angels organization. He spent the first six years of his career as a member of the New York Mets.
