SANTA ANA, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels should be held responsible for the drug overdose death of one of its star pitchers because the team failed to follow its own drug policies and let an addicted and drug dealing employee stay on the job and have access to the players, a lawyer for the pitcher’s family said on Tuesday.
An attorney for the Angels, however, said the MLB team had no knowledge 27-year-old Tyler Skaggs was using drugs or they would have done something to help.
The allegations came in opening statements of the long-awaited civil trial in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Skaggs’ wife and parents. The family contends the team should be held responsible for Skaggs’ death after its communication director, Eric Kay, was convicted of providing the fentanyl-tainted pill that led to Skaggs’ fatal overdose on a team trip to Texas in 2019.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Shawn Holley told jurors Angels officials knew Kay was addicted to opioids and showing up high to work, and providing drugs to at least six players including Skaggs.
Holley said the Angels repeatedly failed to follow the team’s drug policies when it came to Kay, even assigning him to accompany the team to Texas soon after he had gone 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 and over again, and as a result Tyler Skaggs is dead,” Holley told jurors.
Todd Theodora, an attorney for the Angels, told jurors 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 had they known Skaggs was taking drugs. Theodora also said Skaggs’ actions occurred on his own time and couldn’t have been prevented by the Angels.
“He died due to his reckless decision to mix large amounts of alcohol with narcotics on 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, the team’s president John Carpino, lawyers 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 supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. A coroner’s report says Skaggs 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 an oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl and sentenced to 22 years in federal prison. His federal criminal 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.
Holley told jurors Angels players were buying drugs from Kay at the clubhouse, in the locker room and in the 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 outpatient rehab due to his own drug use and his wife found text messages on his phone indicating he had been providing drugs to the players, which she shared with Angels officials, Holley said.
“Eric regularly supplied the drugs 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 attending rehab, he had medical clearance to do so and 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, the 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 had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The trial is expected to take 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.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
