Ex-Angels P Matt Harvey suspended 60 games after admitting to taking pills with Tyler Skaggs

Former Los Angeles Angels pitcher Matt Harvey was suspended 60 games by Major League Baseball on Tuesday for his role in the death of former teammate Tyler Skaggs.

MLB suspended Harvey, who is currently with the Baltimore Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate, for participating in the distribution of a prohibited drug of abuse. The suspension is retroactive to April 29.

Harvey admitted in court earlier this year that he received pills from former Angels communications official Eric Kay. Harvey said at Kay’s trial that he received Percocet in 2019 and started using it and sharing it with Skaggs. He said he frequently exchanged pills with Skaggs in the clubhouse, and that he used Percocet in the clubhouse and dugout, and said he saw Skaggs snort oxycodone in the clubhouse bathroom.

Skaggs died in July 2019 of an opioid overdose. He was 27. A report later determined that he took pills laced with fentanyl and mixed them with alcohol, and that he choked on his own vomit.

Kay was convicted on two felony counts of distributing pills to players earlier this year. He had worked for the Angels for more than a decade. Harvey was granted immunity during the trial, but was still subject to discipline from the league.

Harvey, 33, spent one season with the Angels in 2019, where he made 12 starts and went 3-5. The former New York Mets star went 6-14 in 28 starts last season with the Orioles, which marked his fifth team in four seasons.

Matt Harvey said in court earlier this year that he took pills in the Angels dugout and had exchanged them with Tyler Skaggs, who died of an overdose in 2019. (Rob Carr/Getty Images)