SANTA ANA, Calif. – The Los Angeles Angels should be held responsible for the drug overdose death of one of their star pitchers because the team failed to follow its own drug policy and allow an addicted and drug-dealing employee to remain on the job and have access to the players, an attorney for the pitcher’s family said Tuesday.
However, an attorney for the Angels said the MLB team did not know that 27-year-old Tyler Skaggs was using drugs or they would have done something to help.
The allegations came in the opening statements of the long-awaited civil trial in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Skaggs’ wife and parents. The family claims the team should be held responsible for Skaggs’ death after communications director Eric Kay was convicted of providing the fentanyl-tainted pill that led to Skaggs’ fatal overdose during a team trip to Texas in 2019.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Shawn Holley told jurors that Angels officials knew Kay was addicted to opioids and showed up to work high, providing drugs to at least six players, including Skaggs.
Holley said the Angels repeatedly failed to follow the team’s drug policy when it came to Kay, even ordering him to accompany the team to Texas shortly after he went through rehab, but fully enforced the rules when it came to lower-level employees who had stadium jobs.
“They buried their heads in the sand over and over again, and as a result, Tyler Skaggs is dead,” Holley told jurors.
Todd Theodora, an attorney for the Angels, told the jury autopsy results showed Skaggs had also been drinking and taking oxycodone when he died and was snorting painkillers. Theodora said the team would have done something to help if they had known Skaggs was using drugs. Theodora also said that Skaggs’ actions happened in his own time and could not be prevented by the angels.
“He died because of his reckless decision to mix large amounts of alcohol with narcotics the night he died, and he did that to get high,” Theodora told jurors. “The evidence will show that Angels Baseball did not know that Tyler had a drug problem or that Eric Kay was distributing drugs to any player. Period. End of story.”
Skaggs’ wife and mother were in court, as were Angels owner Arte Moreno, team president John Carpino, attorneys and news reporters.
The civil case in a Santa Ana courtroom comes more than six years after Skaggs was found dead in the suburban Dallas hotel room where he was staying as the Angels were set to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. According to a coroner’s report, Skaggs choked on his vomit and a toxic mixture of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.
Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing an oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl to Skaggs and sentenced to 22 years in prison. His federal criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they received oxycodone from Kay at different times between 2017 and 2019, the years in which he was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.
Holley told jurors that Angels players bought drugs from Kay in the clubhouse, locker room and parking lot of the team’s Southern California stadium to help them play through the pain. In 2019, Kay went to the hospital and later to outpatient rehab for his own drug use, and his wife found text messages on his phone showing he had provided drugs to the players, which she shared with Angels officials, Holley said.
“Eric regularly provided the medications they needed to perform and they trusted him,” Holley said. “It was rampant, out of control and incredibly dangerous.”
When Kay returned to work in June 2019 after a period of rehabilitation, he had medical clearance to do so and there were no restrictions, Theodora said.
Plaintiffs are seeking $118 million for Skaggs’ lost earnings, as well as compensation for the family’s suffering and punitive damages against the team, Holley said.
After Skaggs’ death, MLB reached a deal with the players’ association to begin testing for opioids and refer those who test positive to the treatment committee. Skaggs has been a fixture in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and has struggled with repeated injuries during that time. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The trial is expected to last weeks and could include testimony from players including Angels outfielder Mike Trout and the team’s former pitcher Wade Miley, who currently plays for the Cincinnati Reds.
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