SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles Angels reached a confidential settlement Friday with the family of late pitcher Tyler Skaggs after a lengthy lawsuit detailing drug use by players.
The two-month trial centered on whether the Angels bore responsibility for Skaggs’ 2019 overdose death during a team trip to Texas after he was given a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl by the team’s then-communications director Eric Kay. The settlement was reached at the last minute as jurors neared the end of their deliberations, they said.
The jury had concluded that the Angels were negligent and had moved on to determine what percentage of responsibility the team shared for Skaggs’ death, juror Jasson Thach said.
“It was really the repeated negligence of the Angels,” Thach said, adding that the group had estimated damages at between $60 million and $100 million.
The test drew an outfielder Mike TroutAngels chairman John Carpino and other team employees to the booth, as well as family members of Skaggs and Kay. Testimonies described players drinking and partying on the team plane and paying Kay for clubhouse stunts, including taking a fastball to the leg.
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Skaggs’ widow, Carli, and his parents said in their lawsuit that the MLB team knew or should have known that Kay was a drug addict and was handing out 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 argued that team officials would have gotten Skagg’s help if they had known he was using drugs.
“The death of Tyler Skaggs remains a tragedy, and this trial sheds light on the dangers of opioid use and the devastating consequences it can have,” the team said in a statement Friday.
In 2019, the 27-year-old was a left-handed pitcher 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, the player choked on his vomit and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.
Longtime Angels employee Kay was sentenced in 2022 of providing the fentanyl pill to Skaggs 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 different times between 2017 and 2019.
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During the civil trial in California, more than 40 witnesses testified about drug use and baseball, including how much money Skaggs could have made if he were still alive. They described how Kay arranged massage appointments, tee times and even prescription medications for players and was found at his home with plastic bags filled with pills and later hospitalized for a drug overdose. Kay was sent on a road trip through Texas shortly after returning to work from rehab, they said.
Witnesses also described how Skaggs struggled with painkillers earlier in his career and was found to have crushed and snorted a pill when he died.
Skaggs had been a fixture in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and repeatedly struggled with injuries. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Jurors began deliberations this week. Late on Wednesday they sent a request to the court asking whether they could award damages. They did not work on Thursday and resumed deliberations on Friday morning.
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In releasing the jurors, Orange County Superior Court Judge H. Shaina Colover thanked them for their dedication. “That is why this issue could be resolved today,” she said.
Several jurors said they were moving toward what many said would be a difficult issue: determining the percentages of responsibility among Skaggs, Kay and the team. About a third of the group tended to side with the plaintiffs, a third stood with the team and a third sat in the middle when answering the 26-question verdict form, Thach said.
Juror Deborah Song said she was relieved the case had been resolved after spending the past two months in court.
“I’m so happy because this way I don’t have to put a number on someone’s life,” Song said.
