SANTA ANA, Calif. — A lawyer for the family of late pitcher Tyler Skaggs argued Monday that the Los Angeles Angels’ failure to investigate reports of drug use and dealing by the team’s communications director led to the overdose death of the 27-year-old player.
An Angels attorney, however, said it was Skaggs who was pushing drug-addicted employee Eric Kay and his teammates to provide him with pills and that had club officials known about it, they would have sought help for the left-handed starter.
The dueling claims came in closing arguments of a two-month civil trial in Southern California over whether the MLB team should be held responsible for Skaggs’ fatal overdose after snorting a fentanyl-laced pill on a team trip to Texas in 2019.
Kay was convicted of providing the pill that led to Skaggs’ death in a federal criminal case in Texas. The California trial is a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Skaggs’ widow, Carli, and his parents, contending the Angels knew or should have known Kay was an addict and dealing to players.
Texas Rangers. A coroner’s report indicated the player choked to death on his vomit and that a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.
Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing Skaggs with a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl and sentenced to 22 years in prison. His trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they received oxycodone from Kay at various times from 2017 to 2019, the years he was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.
In California, the trial has included testimony from dozens of witnesses, with Angels outfielder Mike Trout, Angels president John Carpino and Skaggs’ and Kay’s relatives among them. Witnesses described Kay’s erratic behavior at the stadium and incidents that led to his time in rehab before he headed on the trip to Texas with the team. They also described how players paid Kay for stunts in the clubhouse, including taking a fastball to the leg and eating a pimple off Trout’s back.
Kay’s ex-wife, Camela Kay, said the Angels failed her former husband, who worked lengthy hours, and that during his 2019 hospitalization for a drug overdose, she heard he had pills intended for Skaggs. Carpino testified that he wished he had known sooner about the drug use by both Skaggs and Kay.
Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and had struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time. He previously had played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
After Skaggs’ death, MLB reached a deal with the players’ association to start testing for opioids and to refer those who test positive to the treatment board.
Skaggs’ family is seeking lost earnings, compensation for pain and suffering, and punitive damages against the Angels. Experts for the family said he could have reeled in more than $100 million as a pitcher had he lived, while team-hired experts put the figure at no more than $32 million.
