The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-22)

D4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22 , 2022

ed to it,” Snyder said. “It’s a highly addictive drug, and mistakes hap- pen.”

By the numbers Making the matter murkier are test results that appear to suggest fears of an opioid epidemic in baseball, at least in the years since Skaggs’s death, are overblown. After Skaggs’s death, MLB an- nounced that it would start testing for opioids, saying players who test positive would first be put on a treatment plan rather than disciplined. The MLB Play- ers Association agreed to the change, with Executive Director Tony Clark saying the players “want to take a leadership role in helping to resolve this national epidemic.” MLB has conducted 12,169 drug tests over the past two seasons. While those tests implicated 15 players for using performance- enhancing drugs, according to public annual reports released by MLB, the number of positives for running afoul of the opioid policy is zero. And in the minor leagues, where players have been tested for opioids for two decades, the numbers were also low, according to a person with knowledge of the testing program. Of more than 95,000 drug tests over the past seven years, according to that person, there have been 12 opioid or opiate violations — and none in upward of 16,000 tests in the past two seasons. But outside of the disclosure of the number of tests, MLB has been opaque on key points about its program that could more de- finitively show the extent of abuse. Opioid abuse historically has been fueled as much by lax pre- scribing as black-market distribution. But MLB doesn’t make public the number of tests in which a player tested positive for opioids in which his use of the drugs was deemed to be authorized by a “valid medically appropriate prescription provided by a duly li- censed physician,” which is al- lowed under MLB policy. Giving that authorization is the job of the Joint Treatment Board, which includes four people, with MLB and the players union represented by a medical professional and a lawyer apiece; their identi- ties have not been publicly dis- closed. According to a person involved in management of the testing program, the number of MLB players who have tested positive for opioids in the two years of testing is in the low single digits. In each case, according to that person, the legitimacy of the player’s need for opioids was “quite obvious” — most commonly from a short- term prescription following surgery. The clashing perspectives on the scope of the problem differ from the episode decades ago, when players were compelled to testify about drug abuse in the clubhouse. Following the Pitts- burgh drug trials, there was no doubt that the game, like wider society in the 1980s, was in the midst of a cocaine scourge. In that case, Philadelphia Phil- lies clubhouse caterer Curtis Strong, described by his lawyer as a “poor, pitiful baseball junkie,” was among seven men — all non- players — indicted on charges of drug distribution, and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. When Kay is sentenced in June, mandatory minimums ensure he’ll be slated to do more time than that. He faces between 20 years and a life sentence.

out” and arranged for Kay to leave him an oxycodone pill in his locker. But when he learned the next day of Skaggs’s death, Harvey said, he rushed back to the ball- park to retrieve the pill and throw it away. “I didn’t want anything to do with that,” said Harvey, who spent last season with the Balti- more Orioles. “I was scared.” Former Angels pitcher Cam Bedrosian told the jury that he got “three or four” oxycodone pills from Kay and took one but felt guilty and “kind of weird.” He said he gave the remaining pills back to Kay. Pitcher Blake Parker said he purchased 10 pills from Kay but his hand turned numb after he took half of one so he returned the rest. And a Drug Enforcement Administration agent testified that another Angels pitcher, Gar- rett Richards, sent Kay $1,700 via Venmo. Skaggs’s opioid dependency was described as the result of a confluence of baseball stressors. His mother testified that he became hooked on Percocet to cope with having to perform at a high level; his wife, Carli, said he was under pressure to stay healthy and keep playing. But multiple players said they had no source for opioids other than Kay, countering the idea of a widespread, leaguewide practice of players popping pills to play through injuries. Pitcher Andrew Heaney acknowledged every player’s “on- going battle to remain healthy,” but he said he had never used any drug outside of marijuana. And he said Skaggs, with whom he was close friends, never told him about his drug use, suggesting it was a closely held secret. The existence of an MLB clubhouse with members regularly trading pain pills seemed like an anomaly to Snyder, the longtime professional ballplayer. He said the demands of the season would make it nearly impossible to maintain a career while depend- ent on opioids. “Baseball players are human beings, and whether you’re a con- struction worker that hurts his back on a site and is prescribed medication and is addicted to it, [that] is no different than a baseball player that has a shoulder surgery and ends up being addict-

Federal agents testified about Kay’s suspected source, a dealer they knew as “Ashley Smith.” But they acknowledged that that name was probably a pseudonym and that they did not follow up on the identity or whereabouts of Smith, whose “burner” phone was deactivated following Skaggs’s death. Kay’s lawyer, Michael Molfetta, claimed the apparent lack of pur- suit of Smith was evidence that federal authorities were satisfied with the publicity inherent in a case implicating Kay, a team employee whom Molfetta described as a lackey for the players. “A professional athlete, that has some cachet,” Molfetta said during his closing argument.

A lineup of witnesses The trial’s highest-profile mo- ments came with the testimony of major leaguers, who discussed a secret practice of drug use in the game. The players, at least one of whom was compelled to testify and given immunity as long as he told the truth, appeared uncom- fortable, sometimes crying in the witness box. Pitcher Mike Morin, once S kaggs’s teammate with the An- gels, said Kay provided him with oxycodone pills; he said he would bite off a piece before taking the field. First baseman C.J. Cron said he got pills from Kay roughly eight times — when he was with the Angels and after he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays. Both testified that they learned of Kay’s access to pills through Skaggs. Harvey, who was an all-star for the New York Mets before joining the Angels, acknowledged cocaine use throughout his career. When asked by a prosecutor whether it was common for players to use oxycodone and Tylenol, he answered, “Yes,” and he also testified to sharing his own drugs with Skaggs. Harvey said that in hindsight he wished he had advised Skaggs to be careful. “In baseball, you do everything you can to stay on the field,” he said. “At the time I felt as a teammate I was just helping him get through whatever he needed to get through.” Harvey said he learned before the Angels’ road trip to Texas — where Skaggs died — that he was not going. Harvey said he felt “left

position, which granted him access to the Angels’ players, such that he was constantly seen hang- ing out with players in the locker room, on the team plane, and in their hotel rooms?” a civil com- plaint reads. “The answer to this question became obvious when Kay admitted to DEA investiga- tors he had been providing illegal opioids to at least six Angels players.” Prosecutors claimed in pretrial court filings in the Kay case that the Angels were defying a subpoena seeking documents related to “illegal drug-dealing in their or- ganization.” The Angels coun- tered that they had provided federal authorities with nearly 1 million pages of internal documents, except for those covered by a ttorney-client privilege. A judge agreed, calling the prosecutors’ subpoena “a government fishing expedition.” During the trial, the only non- player employee of the Angels said to have knowledge of the drug use was a clubhouse atten- dant, who prosecutors claimed had linked Kay with the dealer who sold him the pill that killed Skaggs. But unlike in other drug cases, there appeared to be little interest in following the fentanyl-laced pill up the supply chain. Court testimony suggested Kay, who used the same drugs that he distributed to Skaggs and other players, didn’t profit from the practice.

high-profile overdose deaths, including those of actor Michael K. Williams and rapper Mac Miller. In the case of Skaggs, who was 27 when he was found dead with a mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone in his system, prosecutors appeared intent on connecting his death to a systemic problem in the sport — and potential com- plicity by the Angels. In announcing Kay’s indict- ment in August 2020, Erin Nealy Cox, then U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, suggested Skaggs was driven to opioid addiction because he was “battling through a number of injuries as he continued to play ball.” The prosecutor asked players dealing with addiction to call a hotline. And the prosecution has at times aligned with allegations made in lawsuits filed by Skaggs’s family that have blamed the An- gels for his death. In those lawsuits, Skaggs’s family, represented by attorney Rusty Hardin, has claimed that top team brass al- lowed Kay — who allegedly had survived a recent overdose — “un- restricted access” to players who, because of “the rigors of a 162- game schedule... are at risk of turning to medication to assist with pain management.” The lawsuits even suggested that the Angels kept Kay on staff because of, not in spite of, his proximity to pain pills. “Why would the Angels pro- mote a drug addict to an executive

s uggesting the Angels and MLB
are complicit.
“There’s no question the MLB
system is broken,” assistant U.S.
attorney Errin Martin said during
her closing statement. “[Major
leaguers] have to do whatever it
takes to play.”
That appeared to be the gov-
ernment’s answer to the question
that was raised by the discovery of
S kaggs’s body at a Texas hotel in
2019: Does baseball have an opi-
oids problem? But outside the
courthouse, there’s hardly a con-
sensus that baseball is in the grips
of a drug dependency epidemic.
MLB’s own numbers, the product
of thousands of random drug tests
implemented following Skaggs’s
death, indicate the opposite. And
players interviewed by The Wash-
ington Post said that, outside of
the Skaggs case, they had never
encountered opioid abuse in
baseball.
“I’ve played 17 years, and I nev-
er saw or heard of any teammate
who took part in that,” said Bran-
don Snyder, who has played pro-
fessionally since 2005, including
major league stints with five
teams. “It’s hard for me to believe
that it’s an epidemic that’s going
through baseball.”
“To be brutally honest, obvious-
ly we can say that there might be
an issue because someone has
passed away,” Chicago Cubs catch-
er Yan Gomes said. “But I haven’t
heard or been around anything
like that.”
“I can’t remember ever having a
conversation or hearing anything
about opioid use among coaches
or players throughout my career,”
said Will Venable, a former player
who is now bench coach for the
Boston Red Sox.
Those in the game who do have
experience with opioid abuse may
be hesitant to admit it in public.
And MLB, given its history of
covering up steroid use, is sure to
inspire cynicism when it insists
the game is clean.
Depending on how you viewed
it, Kay’s trial showed Skaggs’s
death was either the result of a
sport whose athletes become ad-
dicts as they attempt to push
through pain and a grueling
schedule o r an unfortunate, iso-
lated incident involving a few
drug users who happened to be
employed by the same team.
Agent Lonnie Murray said she
had clients who struggled with
opioid abuse, including a minor
leaguer who, after injuring his
back, died of what she believed
was an oxycodone overdose. But
baseball, Murray said, only re-
flects the wider crisis of opioid
abuse. “I think it’s a problem in
society,” she said. “I don’t think it’s
more prevalent in baseball than it
is in society.”
She expressed an opinion held
by many in baseball — that Kay
was scapegoated. She said she be-
lieved the government attempted
to depict the case as a takedown of
baseball’s supposed pain pill cul-
ture so that it appeared a more
worthwhile cause than sending
one drug user to prison for dec-
ades after the death of another.
“When we’re talking about the
prosecutor trying to make it an
Angels thing or an MLB thing,
that is how you get a conviction,”
Murray said. “You have to make it
about big business versus an indi-
vidual.”

Celebrity cases

As America’s fentanyl epidemic
has proved impossible to corral,
federal authorities appear to have
focused on cracking down on the
street-level dealers involved in

OPIOIDS FROM D1

Trial spilled secrets, but is this baseball’s next drug scandal?

MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS Matt Harvey, shown in 2019, said it was common for players to use oxycodone and Tylenol and that he shared his drugs with Tyler Skaggs.

LM OTERO/ASSOCIATED PRESS Former Angels employee Eric Kay was found guilty last week of providing drugs to Skaggs, who died of an overdose in 2019.

BY CHELSEA JANES

jupiter, fla. — The late push to
find common ground on a collec-
tive bargaining agreement in
time to avoid missing regular
season games began in a parking
lot Monday afternoon. Ten play-
ers, among them stars Max
Scherzer and Francisco Lindor,
circled around Major League
Baseball Players Association
chief Tony Clark for what looked
something like a pregame pep
talk.
Instead of baseball pants and
cleats, they wore jeans and
sneakers. Instead of jerseys, they
wore polo shirts. Then all at once
they marched through the park-
ing lot and into Roger Dean
Stadium, the spring training
home of the St. Louis Cardinals
and Miami Marlins — and the
site of what both sides have said
will be a week’s worth of in-per-
son negotiations.
No one is using that stadium
for much at the moment, given
that a lockout now in its third
month has forced the postpone-
ment of spring training and at

least a week’s worth of Grape- fruit and Cactus League games. Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort, San Diego Padres owner Ron Fowler and representatives from MLB already had made their way inside. Over the course of five hours Monday afternoon, the sides met face-to-face for about 75 minutes, broke into their own caucuses to discuss rebuttals for a few hours, met again, then separated again, according to people involved, who said the sides addressed a wide range of issues. Players spoke directly to owners in those meetings, according to a person in the room. MLB also made a proposal, one the union did not find partic- ularly helpful. Owners upped their commitment to a bonus pool that would reward high- achieving players not yet quali- fied for arbitration from $15 million to $20 million to be dis- bursed among 30 top perform- ers. The union’s latest proposal called for that bonus pool to consist of $115 million to be distributed among 150 players.

MLB also increased the number of teams it would be willing to include in a draft lottery from three to four, having argued repeatedly that merely agreeing to a lottery at all, instead of automatically rewarding the

worst team with the top pick, represents a concession in itself. The union believes MLB is not moving far enough to prevent annual also-rans from being re- warded with revenue sharing and prime draft picks and has

asked that a draft lottery include eight teams. Just as importantly, neither side made any change to its proposal for the competitive bal- ance tax threshold or tax rates — a sticking point that is usually one of the final pieces negotiated in any CBA discussion. MLB was the last side to move on that number, upping its offer to one that sets the threshold at $214 million in 2022 and calls for it to increase to $222 million over the five-year agreement. MLB’s offer also includes a near doubling of the tax rates charged to teams that eclipse those thresholds, which union representatives have maintained must change before a deal can get done. The union’s most recent stated goal for the CBT threshold is $245 million, and MLBPA representatives have al- tered that proposal in recent weeks. Both sides will soon have to find middle ground there and elsewhere if they hope to avoid missing regular season games, something both have said public-

ly they do not want to do — while suggesting privately that the other side is secretly plotting to hold out until that happens. Earlier this month, MLB informed the players union that the latest date it believes a deal can get done to start the regular season on time is Feb. 28. The union does not necessarily agree with that, but MLB has more control over the timeline than the players: The lockout is not mandatory, and the owners could lift it at any time. But the owners will not lift the lockout before an agreement is reached, leaving the sides roughly six days before the scheduled start of the regular season top- ples over the cliff into uncertain oblivion, six days to close gaps that have hardly narrowed in three months. For weeks the sides have been negotiating in fits and starts — a day here, an hour there. Perhaps the most promising part of Monday’s negotiations is that they plan to funnel into the Roger Dean Sta- dium parking lot again and have more of them Tuesday.

MLB and players union meet but find little has changed

STEVE NESIUS/ASSOCIATED PRESS MLB has informed the players union that the latest date it believes a deal can get done to start the regular season on time is Feb. 28.

The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-22)

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