Free agent right-hander Matt Harvey testified yesterday during the ongoing trial of former Angels communications director Eric Kay, who is accused of distributing the drugs that led to the tragic 2019 death of Tyler Skaggs. On the stand, Harvey — who was granted immunity from criminal prosecution — admitted to providing Skaggs with Percocet pills shortly before Skaggs’ death.
An MLB official tells T.J. Quinn of ESPN that Harvey could face a suspension between 60 and 90 days for distributing controlled substances. MLB said in a statement that it will “conduct a comprehensive review of the potential violations of our drug program” after the conclusion of the trial. Kay’s defense team rested its case this afternoon. Closing arguments are scheduled to take place tomorrow morning, and it’s expected that jury deliberations will begin not long after.
The matter is further complicated by the ongoing MLB lockout. Quinn writes that the league cannot pursue discipline until after a new collective bargaining agreement is reached. The Joint Drug Agreement between the league and MLB Players Association has been suspended by the lockout, also resulting in a pause on drug testing (both for drugs of abuse and performance-enhancing substances) for MLBPA members.
Four other former members of the Angels also testified about opioid usage during Kay’s trial. C.J. Cron (now with the Rockies), Cam Bedrosian (on a minor league deal with the Phillies) and free agent Mike Morin testified yesterday, while free agent reliever Blake Parker took the stand this afternoon. All four players admitted to using drugs given to them by Kay, but only Harvey said he’d ever distributed drugs to anyone else. Quinn writes that the cases of Cron, Bedrosian, Morin and Parker are likely to be referred to a treatment board for the creation of a treatment program. Unless those players have previously been disciplined for drugs of abuse — referrals to the treatment board are not typically made public — they would not face the possibility of suspension.
That is a terrible loss for the 2023 free agent market when baseball comes back. I know 10 teams that were interested in his 8.00 era and his straight fastball with no movement.
The Angels Dugout is a scary place to be for pitchers
Harvey “…admitted to providing Skaggs with Percocet pills shortly before Skaggs’ death.” I’d be more worried about 6-9 years in prison than a 60-90 day suspension!
Trainers working for the Teams have been providing drugs to players as far back trainers have existed… Mickey Mantle was getting trainer… who refereed him to Dr. feelgood
Those trainers sure do sound like quite the motley crew.
Or Motley Crüe
If he goes back to Baltimore, he’ll be home sweet home.
That’s why I’ve never understood outrage over steroids era. Players were popping amphetamines like candy and a good number were using coke.
Percocet was probably used heavily for same reason.
Everyone took amphetamines out in the open. No one was hiding it. No one considered it an unfair advantage. Read Ball Four.
With PEDs, these people lied to Federal Investigators, and even to Grand Jurys. It was done in the dark behind closed doors. EVERYONE considered it an unfair advantage.
Cheating is two things.
1) It’s against the rules.
2) To gain an unfair advantage.
Vincent sent a memo in 1990 specifying Amphetamines and other PEDs were against the rules.
The reason people can’t tell the difference is they don’t want to tell the difference.
Steroids caused the record books to be shattered. Vocative use in baseball wasvtraguc, it ruined careers, it didn’t enhance play. Amphetamines didn’t cause the stats to drastically and suddenly shift. A lot of big differences there.
If it’s all about degrees of breaking the rules, then these people have a point, what’s the different between good drugs and great drugs?
There is none.
The difference is no one considered use of amphetamines as gaining an unfair advantage. Everyone thought PED was gaining an unfair advantage.
Cheating doesn’t exist if everyone condones the action.
Let me just add. Prior to last year, the use of sticky stuff was condoned by both the pitchers and the hitters. Nobody cared. It was against the rules, but most everyone used it. No one considered it gaining an unfair advantage.
What’s the difference between Sicky Stuff and Vaseline? A lot.
sticky stuff gave the pitchers 2 seamers breaking more than a foot.
@halo. We should ask gabe kapler the difference. Oh yeah that was coconut oil….
Halo11 was the Vaseline for the bullpen to rub one off?
So steroids are bad because they worked?
Yes, part of why steroids are bad is because they work, ie give an unfair advantage and skew stats. Is that difficult to comprehend? If they didn’t work, where would the issue be?
Players were popping amphetamines like candy and a good number were using coke.
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I’m not convinced of that, at least for regulars players. Maybe coming back from a long road trip, or a day game following a night game. But you can’t take speed everyday. You pop something before the game, and you’ll need some alcohol to help you sleep. You can’t do that and remain sane.
Believe me, if there were no side effects, I’d be dropping them into my morning coffee.
Ken Caminetti says hold my beer.
I’ve seen you make this assertion before, Joe and I have to say you are just dead wrong. Addicts DO use speed EVERYDAY. Doing so may seem impossible to you but you are not an addict. Having worked in many seedy environments I can attest to many acquaintances who use booze, speed, or coke or other than that every single day. Morning to night. That’s addiction. The body craves and adjusts.
Use of Cocaine was Note in Baseball in the 1880 in the professional ranks ( See Ken Burns Baseball)… Amphetamines came back from WWII where they germans were the 1st to pop them to to keep them going during battle.. and were in the MLB soon afterwards… and the reason people don’t notice the spike in Production is because drugs have always been part of the game… Steroids ,, which also came from WWII and were soon all the rage on the beaches of California ( Muscle Beach) … and in baseball.. in fact in 1961.. 2 occurrences show it was being used.. in the Race for 61 homers Mantle had to drop out because he got sick from an infection from a broken off needle in his hip… the shot was by a Doctor he was referred too by the trainer.. Dr. Feelgood… and for some mysterious reason Maris had his hair fall out in gobs… it was a mystery… so he either had radiation poisoning.. or chances are he was doing massive steroid doses.. and they have many picture of Maris and Mantle… who they were calling the Muscle Boys… showing their huge muscle development… Just like on the beaches of California..
Or even more likely, Maris’ hair fell out in clumps because of the stress of the constant attention and fan’s jeering him for having the audacity to compete with the Mick, and the injection Mantle got was for a painkiller of some sort.
excuses excuses… mantle was given drugs by ” Dr. Feelgood”.. noted drug dealer… my my what big muscles they had … so much so the Yankmemes … there were whole PR shoots of them.. and a news reel short showing off the muscles… Maris Died young of cancer… a known after effect of steroid consumption… because it hurts the autoimmune system..
I heard rumors of Harvey being a cokehead when he was a Met
you probably are right. If team security had to go find him because he was so far gone from the night before, I wouldn’t be shocked if that were the case. Many many many alcoholics use the powder as well
I’m clean 21 years, and the two certainly went hand-in-hand for me, although I never did cocaine without having alcohol in my system first, glad that nightmare is over
I actually just stumbled across a NY Post article that says Harvey admitted to cocaine use.
nypost.com/2022/02/15/matt-harvey-talked-about-kil…
He has to wait until the league has a new labor deal AND signs a contract with a team? He’s got nothing to worry about regarding suspension.
This is passive aggressive
Skaggs’ decision to take the drugs!!!
SMH
You may as well suspend him for 6000 to 9000 games cuz nobody is gonna sign him anyway.
Doule-A teams need pitching too!
I’ve loved baseball since I was old enough to walk, coming up on 50 years now, but I can honestly say I’ve never been so sour on major league baseball than I am right now. Between the lockout, the contraction of the minors, and the grim knowledge that this opioid thing probably isn’t isolated to one team, it just sucks all around.
I agree, it’s broken. I’ve gone from
having season tickets and loving it for many years to being disgusted and bored with players who care more about their stupid celebrations then they do about winning a game. I am rooting for the season to be canceled.
I go back to the days of my dad taking my brother and I to Pirates games at Forbes Field and am in agreement. Maybe every generation looks back to their youth and thinks things were better but to me at least, big money kills everything and it killed my desire to watch MLB
Drugs are an offshoot of that. It’s been going on for years and certainly something Pirates fans remember from the 80’s
They never did name the biggest dealers in that clubhouse.
tiredolddude Some said Curtis Strong
Some said the Parrot?
Parker, Scurry, Berra, everybody but Tanner.
Born in ’77 and too young to really remember the ’79 series, the strung-out Buccos of the mid 80’s were my introduction to Pirates baseball. Somehow I remain a die hard near 40 years later….Though it does get frustrating with where the game is heading
I heard about the same along with a couple of other high profile players from that era
For me, I love the game even as salaries and stories like this continue. Guess that includes all professional sports these days. So much money. So much arrogance. Funny to think that in the olden days, athletes had to find off-season or post-retirement work and lived in the community. I’m a dinosaur
What sucks, @Emerson is that we – as the fans whom have created this multi-billion dollar industry in “entertainment” – are responsible for…well, all of it, bro.
Fans, like so many that frequent MLBTR, true baseball fans, are increasingly losing interest in MLB. Myself included – I love baseball, the game, but I feel less-and-less connected to MLB. How both sides can be so careless with that growing disinterest is puzzling.
30 Parks: I think you describe a common and growing sentiment among many avid baseball fans. The fact that MLB as a whole doesn’t see this is what will hurt them in the future, imho. They talk about pace of play, not enough offense, and other aspects, but really this damages the game more than any of these other listed issues.
When your fan base feels like you are an integral part of their life, part of their childhood identity, and you treat them as an inconvenience at best? Yeah, they will inevitably find something to fill that space. Look at the passion on these boards. People defend players and owners like family. Eventually, they will internalize these things and understand the hard truth that the nostalgia is lying, that team is dead, and the new baseball is no different than Walmart or Target with a state logo on it. I am also talking about me, so I’m not one to pretend I’m ahead of the curve because I still struggle as a lifelong Yankees fan. My favorite team overall and a huge part of my childhood and young adult life, especially the 90’s dynasty.
Well said, Clipper. I’ve referenced the phrase previously, both sides are remarkably tone deaf. MLB is foremost, to a fault, a business – that changes the fan experience. The fans become secondary. So careless.
Well said, both of you guys. You’ve nailed my thoughts perfectly. I find more joy in watching Olympians who make virtually nothing or American Legion kids playing. At least there’s some purity in the games
Well said, Clipper. Great convo all around, made me think. Thanks guys
He wouldn’t be signing with an MLB team anyways
On a more positive note/comment, I hope MLB does use this info to implement a program for any player that may have issues with substances. Not to penalize them via suspension and to not pay them, but to get them the help that they truly need.
You would think they’d already have such a program.
I assume they have a program. I also assume that Skaggs didn’t want to participate. And, since he made almost $8M in his career, I assume he could sign up for any program in the world, with or without the Angels help. This is on Skaggs. Sometimes these things happen.
Exactly. There are a ton of guys from the 1980s that were like Skaggs…some died and some didn’t.
you can’t bring up things like personal responsibility on this site
Such programs already exist. Also, there are laws covering such things.
We all already knew Harvey was a big POS on and off the field.
Matt Harveys disappointing baseball career appears to be over. All that talent, wasted.
Career killer for a tweener type. that said, I can’t feel bad. in fact, I feel bad that this POS was given immunity to legal prosecution.
Isn’t there a testing program?
There had to be “reasonable cause” for testing for drugs of abuse up until Skaggs passed away and MLB implemented mandatory testing for them. They were only testing for steroids and cannaboids with the random tests to that point.
It’s easy to blame Harvey and Kay, but it’s nauseating that the real people who created this crisis get to live freely with billions.
It’s a sad story but sadly there have been millions of people affected by big pharma with no real designs at stopping the bleeding
Yeah, I’m really hating “Big Pharma’ after they didn’t invent any vaccines during the Pandemic and we had to count on the socialists to invent the vaccines and save our lives. Remember that?
And it’s also not right that ‘Big Pharma’ is selling cocaine to Matt Harvey at the Duane Reade. LOL!! Nutter deli9ht.
Creating a vaccine for the purpose of profit doesn’t cancel out creating an opioid crisis.
Over 100,000 people annually die in the US alone from opioid related overdoses.
I don’t expect you to have the depth as a human being to understand all this though so not sure why I’m bothering responding.
You’re the one trying to use a court case and criminal charges as an excuse to virtue signal. Harvey and Kay are not people charged with the opioid crisis. It’s not like the wrong people have been charged, as you pretend. Harvey was a coke head and Kay pushed drugs to players.
Why is it that coke head, alcoholic & drug infested are always used in a negative connotation? “If I was single I’d date her, she’s really cute, a functioning alcoholic & she lives in a drug infested neighborhood, any coke head would be lucky to have her.” Ahahahahaha!
Pro Tip Dusty: You can’t OD on drugs if you don’t use drugs in the first place.
Stop using vaccines as an excuse to support big pharma you clown. 3 of the 4 vaccine companies have been sued for the most money in history for fraud, faulty products, poisoning people and other things. Stop being a shill
Big Pharma is not faultless, but people who want to party hard, will find a way. Especially if they are rich. I didn’t go out partying every night because someone named Heineken invented beer. I did it because I liked it.
the compromise is that everyone is responsible. Harvey and Kay weren’t forced to do this by any means. while I don’t like it when only certain people get punished, a crime is a crime and “well you gotta punish the other guy too” is not an excuse.
Between this and his pitching, Harvey is finished…
Has he announced yet that he has no idea how those words got into his system and that he intends to spend the rest of his career investigating?
He should use Big Papi’s investigator. That guy did a bang up job in his investigation.
One of the least Batman-y thing to do.
This “Knightfall” may lead to the “Knightsend” of his career…
You die or or live long enough to become the villain
Throw Harvey in jail.
There are multiple sad things about Harvey, but I’ll point to 2 that affects a lot of homes.
1) This drug problem continue to hit many people and many families. All we can do is try our best to get guys like him help.
2) I hope parents think about this “Daddy Ball” stuff that individuals like Harvey endured where kids from a young age are given entitlement, privilege, etc. by the fathers that were in position to fill their head that they were deserving of everything in the world, thus creating an individual who can be a complete d-bag who also has the weakness of being incapable of handling adversity. Matt Harvey is just another example of this.
Two things that won’t add or take away from this discussion, but these things crossed my mind:
Tim has done such a great job with this site over the years that virtually any baseball you can even think of has heard about or even read this site at least once, probably more like hundreds of times for most who made it to the show or not….
Therefore ~
1)Hopefully Matt Harvey’s friends and/or family is not viewing this comment section… It might take him back to his Met days of wanting to call it a life…. None of us here would want that I am sure…
2)Do people still view a person who is addicted to a drug as a criminal these days or a person who needs help? No need to answer… It just popped in my head…
As a kid growing up on the west side of Chicago…. the drug users were thought of as criminals and so I grew up thinking that way… but over the years… I guess knowing good people who got addicted to drugs in their journey through life… I guess I changed my view to think they more so need help than a jail term… no matter if they make millions or pennies… and I know both.. former HS teammate who gained and lost millions after being a pro who had a habit he could not kick…. as well as the simple neighbor who could not kick a habit…
Just my view.. Not something that warrants a response…
This is part of a common thread throughout many of the posts.
There but for the grade of God go I. I didn’t run with a particularly bad crowd, but no small amount of them are dead. A couple of drug-related, a couple of alcohol related, and a couple both. I could’ve been one of them. A lot of us could’ve been one of them.
It’s almost laughable to think of how I would’ve behaved if I had a million $$$ to spend.
God gives you a C-.
I personally have reached the point through life experience with people that struggle with addiction, that it’s better to stick persons with drug addiction into involuntary drug rehab then it is to put them in jail (as long as the crime isn’t horrible like murder, pedophilia, sexual assault, etc. along those lines). However, unfortunately many organizations prevent or make it difficult to place addicts in involuntary treatment, so essentially that same system places them in a situation where nothing gets done until they commit a capital crime, or run into something similar to a “three strikes” standard with criminal activity.
Sadly, in order to get addicts the help they need without putting them in jail, we need to rethink our laws on civil liberties when it comes to people who clearly have developed an addiction. But even that has some gray areas that any attorney will fight against to keep a person out of rehab.
How about Jail?
His career is already over.
So let’s get this straight from a society standpoint. Mac Miller’s dealer pleads guilty to fentanyl distribution resulting in an overdose and agrees to 17 years plea deal, but matt harvey can bust lines avert drug tests and and give out prescription pills that may or not have resulted in Skaggs death and gets off scotch free for testifying against the teams trainer. What a crazy world we live in. Glad you fell flat on ground Harvey you should be behind bars for years instead of getting a slap on the wrist from society, a suspension from baseball and a blackball from owners who moved on from you years ago. Good Riddance,
Yeah he died of a fentanyl overdose… Harvey gave him some Percocets a couple of times… Bc they were both addicts… This is idiocy and exactly why this lawyer called him to testify… Bc instead of drawing a distinction b the dude literally supplying both players with a consistent supply of drugs and giving a player a tainted supply that killed him bc fentanyl is like the deadliest drug known to man you’re now focused on the dude that gave him a couple of low grade pain killers when he couldn’t get his supply from his regular dealer
So let’s get this straight…..
It’s scott free, not scotch free. And also, he made a plea deal for immunity, or else no one would know any of this for certain. Third, the pills he gave Skaggs were not in Skaggs’ system, so Harvey didn’t contribute to anything, much like the last several years of his career.
Thinking Batman wouldn’t be a pill pusher on the side.
Yeah, I lol’d at this one…
Reminder, the Sacklers knew opioids were addictive and lied and even after people started dying (hundreds of thousands of Americans dead) kept lying so they could make more money.
They get to keep the money and won’t go to jail.
Prison is for poor people.
Damn, this is so disheartening.
Honestly I’m not shocked.
Another little tidbit here
Harvey’s really not made that much in career earning as far as relative pitchers around him though the number sits at $29,260,822 according to sports trac.
Blow is not cheap by any means either depending on quantity vs quality plus the guy loved to live the night life in NY when he was there so I’m sure it wasn’t his only doc at the time.
He made $19,715,483 between his 6 seasons with the mets
According to wealthypersons.com on harveys 2020=2021 net worth they only put him at $10 million at this point 11 million in which he stole from the angles 2019 and then another $1,130,339 between the royals and orioles in the following seasons. putting him at $12,130,339 before taxes and blow living expenses etc.
I’m sure he needed to put a nice chunk into this lawyer to boot to clear his name and keep banking on that gravy train.
This guys further off that we thought and might be seeing our boy delonte west pretty soon at the rate he’s going. Yikes!
The integrity of MLB is completely ruined and tarnished. Whether it was because of the Astros’ scandal or other things, it’s sad. I haven’t watched an entire game since 2019 but for some reason I prefer to read about baseball. Haven’t gotten any excitement actually watching a game.
It seems ironic that I find baseball articles and rumors interesting and I can’t even watch an inning without being bored thinking about how many players have cheated. No one seems to play the game the right way anymore. Wasn’t there also an article leaked that Trout takes PEDs for a thyroid condition?
Robinson Cano getting caught taking PEDs was really upsetting as him and Jeter were my favorite players of all time. As a Yankee fan, I can’t even bash the Astros for the trash can scandal, how many Yankees have cheated? What makes that any better or worse? Cano, A Rod, Melky, Gerrit Cole, the list goes on
As long as it’s someone else’s fault for my mistake…
Between the Mets abuse of his arm and Harvey’s substance abuse, his career never stood a chance.
Every so often I’ll run into someone and realize…even though they will make a fortune in the game…the LAST thing they need is to be famous.
The Mets did not abuse his arm. They tried everything to limit his innings in ‘15 but he and his agent resisted for most the season, then proposed him sitting out the playoffs. Badly handled by him and his agent, not the Mets fault.
Forever we went as a society feeling that cocaine and heroin were the bogeyman. Regular people would think nothing of taking pain pills
.getting addicted…but the mindset was that using pain pills didn’t make someone a druggy…drugs… weren’t street drugs like heroin. But that autopsy shows up…it all metabolizes as an opioid. Saw Tyler Skaggs throw a lot of ball in the minors…and lost my brother in law in the same way. Sad deal…it’s beyond baseball. Baseball has ALWAYS had drug issues….it’s played by real people. Real people have real s##t going on in their lives.
No need to suspend him. Cocaine isn’t a performance enhancer, it’s a career killer. It carries its own penalty.
We object to “superstars” who gained an advantage by PEDs. Because we can’t trust their stats now.
If you’re going to punish anyone it should have been ARod, Clemens, Palmeiro, Bonds, Cano, etc etc.
That’s what fans want purity in the stats so we can compare players without having to figure out how much of an impact the cheating made.
Yep. Exactly this.
How could you ever know how much cheating went on?
Who are you? How do you have all this knowledge of who, what, where when it comes to who played clean.
Ok, so now a person needs God-like all-knowing powers over a subject before an opinion can be given? Give me a break.
The Mets are the MLB tragicomedy gift that keeps on giving.
Lol Mets