After four years of bitter legal battles over discovery, the Los Angeles Angels will go to court Monday as defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of former Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. At the heart of the upcoming trial is a central question: is a Major League Baseball team responsible for the death of one of its players?
It is expected that numerous current and former MLB players will testify, as well as several high-ranking Angels officials.
The Skaggs family is seeking $210 million in damages after Skaggs died on July 1, 2019 from a fentanyl overdose during an Angels road trip to Texas. Their side will have to show a jury that the Angels either knew or should have known that imprisoned former communications director Eric Kay was providing pills to Skaggs.
The Angels side will try to re-litigate the case against Kay, and thrust full responsibility for Skaggs’ death onto Skaggs himself.
The filings in this process have, at times, been explosive and contentious. In a filing in Orange County Superior Court on Thursday, Skaggs lawyers highlighted deposition testimony from a clubhouse attendant stating that he witnessed Mike Trout offering to pay for Kay’s rehab in 2018. The filing also included deposition testimony from four different Angels employees and executives, discussing clubhouse behavior they were aware of involving Kay — including eating a pimple off Trout’s back in exchange for cash. Other players were allegedly involved in other dares.
