Former Baltimore Orioles pitcher Brian Matusz, who was found dead in January, died from a fentanyl overdose, according to a Phoenix police report obtained by The Arizona Republic.
Matusz, a St. Mary’s High standout who was the 2005 Arizona Player of the Year, was found dead in Phoenix on Jan. 6. He was 37.
The report stated that Matusz’s mother, Elizabeth Matusz, called 911 after she found him unresponsive.
“She found Brian on the couch in the upstairs loft lying on his back,” the report stated. “He appeared to be deceased, was cold to the touch, and had a white substance in his mouth.”
The police report said the medical examiner deemed Matusz’s death to be an accident due to acute fentanyl toxicity.
Matusz was drafted by the Orioles with the fourth overall pick in 2008 and appeared in 279 games for the team over parts of eight seasons.
Matusz signed a minor-league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2017 and pitched in 11 games for the Reno Aces, the team’s Triple-A affiliate. He also pitched for the Cubs in one game in 2016.
Overdose preceded by hospital visit
The report stated that Elizabeth Matusz told officers her son had struggled with “a general sense of hopelessness” for a while and had been making statements such as “there is nothing left for me” and that he “used to have it all.”
Matusz’s mother took him to the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix at 3 a.m. on Jan. 4 because he was in “extreme distress,” according to the report. Medical staff administered and prescribed various drugs during his visit, the specifics of which were redacted.
Matusz was discharged from the hospital at 9 a.m. that same day with the recommendation that he seek help from a mental health professional. The report said Elizabeth took her son to Banner Behavioral Health Hospital in Scottsdale but he wasn’t admitted.
Matusz stayed at his parents’ home the evening of Jan. 5 before returning to his own home. The police report said Elizabeth Matusz went to check on her son around 2 p.m. on Jan. 6 as his phone went missing during the hospital stay and she entered the home through a bathroom window when her son didn’t answer the door.
She found him unresponsive shortly thereafter and called 911.
Investigators found no signs of foul play
The report said Elizabeth Matusz told police that her son had a history of using fentanyl but hadn’t used it in eight months and only drank alcohol “lightly and occasionally.” He wasn’t known to use any other substance or prescription medication beyond what he had been prescribed during his recent hospital stay.
Investigators found a lighter, straw and a small, square piece of aluminum foil near Matusz’s right hand but didn’t find any substances or burns on the foil.
The report noted that there were no apparent signs of foul play and Matusz still had four leads on his chest from his hospital visit, which didn’t surprise his mother as she felt he wouldn’t have been able to remove them on his own in his current state of mind. She said her son had trouble opening his front door and had asked her to do it for him.
Investigators found Matusz’s two-story home where he lived alone was otherwise clean and orderly with no signs of a struggle occurring.
The Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner indicated that Matusz’s autopsy report had been sealed.
Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at perry.vandell@gannett.com or 602-444-2474. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @PerryVandell.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Brian Matusz, ex-Orioles pitcher, died from fentanyl overdose