https://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/27828247/los-angeles-angels-employee-details-team-knowledge-tyler-skaggs-drug-use-federal-dea-investigators-espn?sf221380130=1

T.J. Quinn ESPN Staff Writer

A public relations employee for the Los Angeles Angels told federal investigators that he provided oxycodone to Tyler Skaggs and abused it with him for years, and that two team officials were told about Skaggs' drug use long before his death, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

Eric Kay, the Angels' director of communications, also gave U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents the names of five other players who he believed were using opiates while they were Angels, the sources said.

Kay's attorney, Michael Molfetta, reached late Friday, confirmed the details of Kay's statements, given in separate meetings with DEA agents in Dallas and Los Angeles in late September.

Skaggs died in a Southlake, Texas, hotel room on July 1 from choking on his own vomit, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office. He was 27. Skaggs' autopsy, released Aug. 30, found evidence of fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol in his system. Outside the Lines reported on Sept. 18 that the DEA had begun an investigation into the source of the fentanyl.

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, according to the two sources. Kay told DEA agents he does not think the pills he obtained for Skaggs were the same ones the pitcher took the day he died because Skaggs typically would ingest the pills immediately after receiving them from Kay, the sources said. Skaggs also texted Kay the day the team left for Texas seeking more oxycodone, a request Kay told investigators he was unable to fulfill, the sources said.

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