FORT WORTH, Tex. (KNX) — Four Major League Baseball players testified Tuesday that they received drugs from a former Los Angeles Angels employee who stands accused of providing pitcher Tyler Skaggs with pills that led to his fatal overdose.
Pitchers Matt Harvey, Mike Morin, and Cam Bedrosian, as well as first baseman C.J. Cron, all took the stand to testify to recreational drug use among teammates around three years ago. All were with the Angels at some time between 2017 and 2019, during which time prosecutors said Eric Prescott Kay, a team publicist, obtained drugs for players, including oxycodone pills.
Kay now faces federal drug distribution and conspiracy charges.
Skaggs was found unresponsive in his hotel room on game day, and later pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators discovered oxycodone pills in the room, and a medical examiner later determined that there was a mix of fentanyl, oxycodone, and alcohol in the pitcher’s system at the time of death. The coroner ruled he had choked to death on his own vomit. Skaggs was 27 years old.
In his testimony, Harvey admitted to being a former cocaine user and said he tried oxycodone provided by Skaggs during his 2019 season with the Angels, and provided drugs to Skaggs in return.
Morin and Cron both testified that they received oxycodone from Kay. Bedrosian said he received three or four pills one time from the publicist, but only took one and gave the rest back.
Of the four, Cron is the only witness currently playing on an MLB team — the Colorado Rockies. The others are free agents.
The defense has contested testimony that drugs circulating among Angels players originated with Kay. They’ve alleged that Skaggs had multiple drug dealers, and there was no way to confirm that the pills that led to his death were sourced by Kay.
Kay claims the last time he gave the pitcher drugs was before the team departed for Texas.
“Looking back, I wish I had,” Harvey testified, after a defense attorney asked him if he ever warned Skaggs to be careful about his drug consumption. “In baseball, you do everything you can to stay on the field. At the time, I felt, as a teammate, I was just helping him get through whatever he needed to get through.”
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