Angels Dir of Communications Eric Kay, who last month told DEA agents that he provided opioids to late P Tyler Skaggs, said it is "time for everyone to stand up and take responsibility," according to T.J. Quinn of ESPN.com. Kay in a statement to ESPN's "OTL" said, "I felt and continue to feel that it is time for everyone to stand up and take responsibility for their respective roles in this" (ESPN.com, 10/13). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jared Diamond writes Skaggs' death has "opened a new and explosive drug problem" for MLB. The league's joint drug agreement "stipulates that any MLB official aware of a player's drug abuse must report it." MLB and the MLBPA "expect to discuss changes to the sport's drug program as soon as this winter." An MLB spokesperson said the league was "unaware of any of these allegations" made by Kay (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/14).
NEW INFORMATION: ESPN.com's Quinn cited sources as saying that Kay "told federal investigators that he provided oxycodone" to Skaggs and "abused it with him for years, and that two team officials were told about Skaggs' drug use long before his death" on July 1. The sources said that Kay also gave DEA agents the "names of five other players who he believed were using opiates" while they played for the Angels. Sources also said that Kay told investigators he "illegally obtained six oxycodone pills and gave three to Skaggs a day or two before the team left California for the road trip to Texas." Kay is "currently in outpatient treatment for substance abuse and has been placed on leave from the Angels." He told investigators that he and Skaggs had "worked out an arrangement in which Kay would obtain drugs for Skaggs and himself, and Skaggs would pay for them." While recovering in the hospital from an overdose on April 22, Kay allegedly "received a text message from Skaggs seeking drugs." Kay's mother, Sandy, was "visiting her son in the hospital at the time," as was former Angels VP/Communications Tim Mead. Sandy told "OTL" that she "saw the texts and told Mead that the team needed to intervene." Mead, who left the Angels in June to become Baseball HOF President, told "OTL" that "no one mentioned Skaggs' name in that conversation or that Skaggs was an opioid user at any other time." Sources said that Kay told DEA agents that he had "first mentioned Skaggs' use to Mead" in '17. But Mead said, "I have had a lot of conversations with Eric Kay about a lot of things, but opioids and Tyler Skaggs were not one of them" (ESPN.com, 10/13). Angels President John Carpino in a statement said, "We have never heard that any employee was providing illegal narcotics to any player, or that any player was seeking illegal narcotics" (L.A. TIMES, 10/13).
