SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles Angels reached a confidential settlement Friday with the family of late pitcher Tyler Skaggs after a lengthy trial that detailed drug use by players.
The two-month trial centered on whether the Angels bore responsibility for Skaggs' 2019 overdose death on a team trip in Dallas after he'd been given a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl by the team's then-communications director, Eric Kay. The last-minute
settlement was reached as jurors were nearing the end of their deliberations, they said.
The jury had concluded the Angels were negligent and had moved on to determining what percentage of responsibility the team shared for Skaggs’ death, said juror Jasson Thach.
“The repeated negligence of the Angels was really it,” Thach said, adding the group had been estimating damages at between $60 million and $100 million.
The trial drew outfielder Mike Trout, Angels president John Carpino and other employees to the stand, as well as relatives of Skaggs and Kay. The employees told the court how players drank and partied on the team plane and paid Kay for clubhouse stunts including taking a fastball to the leg.
Skaggs’ widow, Carli, and his parents said in their lawsuit that the MLB team knew or should have known Kay was a drug addict and dealing painkillers to players.
“Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of their lives after six years of living with this,” Rusty Hardin, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told reporters.
The Angels contended that team officials would have gotten Skaggs help if they had known he was taking drugs.
“The death of Tyler Skaggs remains a tragedy, and this trial sheds light on the dangers of opioid use and the devastating effects it can have,” the team said in a statement Friday.
In 2019, the 27-year-old left-handed pitcher 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 said the player choked to death on his vomit, and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.
Kay, a longtime Angels employee, was convicted in 2022 of providing Skaggs with the pill and sentenced to 22 years in prison. His criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they received oxycodone from Kay at various times from 2017 to 2019.
During the civil trial in California, more than 40 witnesses testified about drug use and baseball, including how much money Skaggs was poised to make had he lived. They described how Kay got players massage appointments, tee times and even prescription medication and was found with plastic bags filled with pills at his home and later hospitalized for a drug overdose. Kay was sent on the Texas road trip shortly after returning to work from rehab, they said.
Witnesses also described how Skaggs struggled with painkillers earlier in his career and chopped up and snorted a pill the day he died.
Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and struggled with injuries repeatedly. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Jurors began deliberations this week. Late Wednesday, they sent out a question for the court asking whether they got to assign punitive damages. They didn't work on Thursday and resumed deliberations Friday morning.
Upon releasing the jurors, Orange County Superior Court Judge H. Shaina Colover thanked them for their diligence. “That is why this matter was able to be resolved today,” she said.
Several jurors said they were heading into what many felt would be a tough issue — determining percentages of responsibility among Skaggs, Kay and the team. About a third of the group tended to side with plaintiffs, a third with the team and a third was in the middle in answering the 26-question verdict form, said Thach.
Juror Deborah Song said she was relieved the case settled after spending the last two months in court.
“I am so happy because that way I don’t have to put a number on somebody’s life,” Song said.
