Lawyers clash over Angels’ alleged role in Tyler Skaggs’ death

SANTA ANA, Calif. — An attorney 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 27-year-old’s overdose death.

An Angels lawyer, however, said it was Skaggs who pushed drug-addicted employee Eric Kay and his teammates to supply him with pills and that if club officials had known, they would have sought help for the left-handed pitcher.

The dueling allegations came in closing arguments in a two-month civil trial in Southern California over whether the MLB team should be held responsible for Skaggs’ fatal overdose after snorting a pill containing fentanyl during a 2019 team trip to Texas.

Kay was convicted of providing the pill that led to Skaggs’ death in a federal criminal case in Texas. The California lawsuit is a wrongful death suit filed by Skaggs’ widow, Carli, and his parents, claiming the Angels knew or should have known that Kay was a drug addict and did business with gamblers.

Daniel Dutko, the attorney for Skaggs’ family, told jurors that extensive testimony showed team officials failed to take adequate action when they learned Kay had several plastic bags filled with pills at his home or that he had been hospitalized for a drug overdose. Rather, Kay stayed on the job and had access to the players he wanted to keep happy by getting them massage appointments, tee times and prescription drugs, Dutko said, adding that he provided medication to seven team members.

“This is a systematic failure, over and over again,” Dutko said. “Why do you think the players think it’s OK to go to the communications director to get a prescription drug? Because they thought Eric Kay’s professional responsibility was to get them everything they needed.”

Todd Theodora, an attorney for the Angels, countered that the team did not know that Skaggs had a painkiller addiction that went back years and did not know that Kay was handing out pills to Skaggs or anyone else. He said Skaggs tricked the other players into taking pills and Kay acted as a so-called “gopher” to supply them with the drugs, but they kept it secret out of fear it could jeopardize their MLB careers.

“This is illegal activity that they covered up because they didn’t want the team to know about it,” Schuyler told the court, adding that Skaggs took the drugs willingly. “They didn’t even tell their wives.”

The trial comes six years after Skaggs was found dead in the suburban Dallas hotel room where he was staying in 2019 when the Angels were supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. A coroner’s report says the player choked to death on his vomit and a toxic mixture of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.

Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing Skaggs with a counterfeit oxycodone pill containing fentanyl and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. His trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they received oxycodone from Kay on multiple occasions between 2017 and 2019, years in which he was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.

In California, the trial included testimony from dozens of witnesses, including Angels outfielder Mike Trout, Angels president John Carpino; and those close to Skaggs and Kay. Witnesses described Kay’s erratic behavior at the stadium and the incidents that led to his stay in rehab before leaving for 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 now ex-wife, Camela Kay, said the Angels failed her then-husband, who worked long hours, and that when he was hospitalized in 2019 for a drug overdose, she heard he had pills intended for Skaggs. Carpino said he wishes he had known sooner about Skaggs and Kay’s drug use.

Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and struggled with injuries several times during that time. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

After Skaggs’ death, MLB reached an agreement with the players’ association to begin testing for opioids and refer those who tested positive to the treatment committee.

Skaggs’ family is seeking lost income, compensation for pain and suffering and punitive damages against the Angels. Family experts have said he could have earned more than $100 million as a pitcher had he lived, while experts hired by the team estimate the figure at no more than $32 million.