Tyler Skaggs was an opioid addict for at least six years prior to the Los Angeles Angels pitcher’s 2019 death, an addiction expert testified on Wednesday, Dec. 10 in the ongoing wrongful death trial against the team.
While those around Skaggs — including family, his agent, fellow players and Angels staff — didn’t see any obvious outward signs of addiction during Skaggs’ time with the organization, Dr. Elie Aoun testified that many people with addictions remain “high functioning.”
“Not everyone with an addiction is going to be a homeless person under a bridge shooting heroin,” said Dr. Aoun, a psychiatrist and Columbia University professor who testified as an expert on behalf of the Angels. “Many people with addictions are under the radar.”
Eric Smith, a teammate of Skaggs when both were in the Arizona Diamondbacks system, has described using opioids with Skaggs as far back in 2011. And a photo from 2012 found in Skaggs’ phone depicted what appeared to be a snorting straw next to a line of white powder.
Dr. Aoun testified that Skaggs “met the diagnostic criteria for severe opioid use disorder” in 2013, and showed signs of that addiction until he died in 2019. Based on Skaggs habit of crushing and snorting opioid pills — which results in a quicker and more intense high — the doctor referred to Skaggs as an “advanced drug user.”
In a 2013 text to another player, Skaggs wrote “I ran out of pain pills you know anyone with them,” adding “Plus I’m pitching today (expletive) me.” Aoun said that showed how Skaggs use of opioids was impacting his job.
“He felt he could not work unless he was using,” the doctor testified.
Later in 2013, Skaggs told his family — as well as his agent — that he had issues with Percocet and sought treatment with a family doctor. But Aoun said Skaggs failed to follow the doctor’s recommendations. His family has described him as deciding to go cold turkey.
“I didn’t see any evidence the family took the addiction seriously or followed up,” Aoun said.
Aoun cited a 2015 text in which Skaggs wrote to his wife, Carli, “I’m a drug addict lol,” and she responded “Babe ok.” The doctor acknowledged that Skaggs was referring to marijuana, not opioids, in that text, but contended that it “demonstrates how lightly the topic was taken.”
“Families are usually taking these things very seriously,” Aoun said.
Skaggs’ family has testified that they were unaware of Skaggs opioid use following his trade to the Angels in 2014. Attorneys for the Angels have argued that Skaggs hid his drug addiction from others in the organization.
Angels front office employees have denied knowing that Skaggs received opioid pills from Eric Kay, a team communications staffer who obtained the pills from dealers he met online. Kay provided a counterfeit pill containing fentanyl that Skaggs crush snorted — combined with oxycodone and alcohol — shortly before his death in a hotel room at the start of a Texas road trip.
Aoun noted that multiple other players have testified to Skaggs introducing them to opioids and tipping them off that Kay could obtain the pills for them. The players have testified they used the opioids to deal with the wear and tear of a professional baseball season and the stress of trying to stay on a major league roster.
“He is bringing them into the drug using world alongside him,” Aoun said.
The doctor testified that addicts usually have more than one source of drugs, since dealers are “notoriously unreliable.”
An attorney for the Skaggs family questioned why Aoun wasn’t asked by the team to look into Kay’s addiction. Attorneys for the family argue the Angels ignored numerous warning signs about Kay’s opioid use and were directly warned before Skaggs death that Kay was providing drugs to him.
Whether the Angels knew, or at least should have known, about Kay’s drug ties to Skaggs will be the key question for jurors in the civil wrongful death trial.
Attorneys for the Skaggs family allege the Angels failed to follow drug policies that required them to report any drug use by team employees to Major League Baseball.
The Angels vice president in charge of HR previously testified that Kay had received treatment from a team psychologist who was also designated as the Angel’s Employee Assistance Professional under the MLB’s Drug Program. But the league was never notified of, or directly involved in, Kay’s treatment, an Angels expert witness acknowledged during testimony on Wednesday morning.
The jury has a break on Thursday, but will return Friday for what is expected to be the final day of testimony in an Orange County Superior Courtroom in Santa Ana.