More than a half-decade after Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs was found dead in a hotel room during a Texas road trip, jury selection will begin on Monday, Oct. 6 in Orange County Superior Court for a wrongful death lawsuit brought against the ball club by Skaggs’ family.
Jurors during what is expected to be a more than month-long trial will ultimately have to decide whether the Angels knew — or at least should have known — about Skaggs’ drug use prior to his death. With Skaggs’ family seeking hundreds of millions of dollars, the financial stake for the ball club is enormous, as even a finding of partial responsibility for the death could open the doors to a hefty penalty.
Jury selection at the Central Courthouse in Santa Ana is expected to take several days to complete. Opening statements in the civil trial are not expected until late in the week of Oct. 6 or early the following week.
Skaggs — a 27-year-old starting pitcher who spent the bulk of his decade-long professional career in the Angels organization — died of what was later determined to be a lethal combination of fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol just hours before the club was scheduled to play a game against the Texas Rangers.
Eric Kay — who at the time of Skaggs’ death was an Angels public relations director — was convicted in federal court in 2022 of providing Skaggs with drugs and sentenced to 22 years in federal prison. Attorneys for the Skaggs’ family allege that Kay provided Skaggs with the drugs he ingested the night of his death. Attorneys for the Angels contend that Kay and Skagg had a “clandestine arrangement” in which Kay would obtain street drugs that Skaggs paid for.
During a series of pretrial court hearings a few days before jury selection, both sides have hinted at arguments that would challenge portions of the public narrative of Skaggs’ death.
Attorneys for the team have indicated that they want to argue the pitcher received narcotics from people other than Kay and argue the fentanyl-laced painkiller Skaggs ingested during the Texas road trip was not a substantial cause of his death.
Meanwhile, attorneys for the Skaggs have said they expect one of the most heavily contested parts of the trial will be over whether the pitcher was a drug addict. Rusty Hardin, one of the attorneys representing the Skaggs, acknowledged during a hearing this week that Skaggs did use drugs, but added: “I want the world to know he was not an addict.”
Both sides are still working on winnowing down a witness list that include Angels staffers, former players and medical experts. The current witness list would take until at least January to complete, the attorneys acknowledge. And Orange County Superior Court Judge H. Shaina Colover has made clear that she would like the trial to wrap up by the Thanksgiving holiday.
Skaggs — who was born in Woodland Hills and attended high school in Santa Monica — was selected by the Angels with the 40th pick of the same draft that brought Mike Trout to the ballclub. The Angels traded Skaggs to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010, but re-acquired him in 2014. He had a breakthrough in 2018, pitching to a near All-Star level before injuries derailed his season.
Weeks after Skaggs’ death, hundreds filled a Santa Monica church to pay tribute to his memory. They recalled a young man who was overflowing with confidence, while remaining a genuine and caring person and a quick friend to all around him.
Skaggs’ death also led to a significant change in Major League Baseball’s drug policy, with players tested for opioids in addition to performance-enhancing drugs.
His death also pointed a spotlight at darker parts of baseball culture.
It came to light following a DEA investigation that Kay, the Angels media relations official, had provided Skaggs with opioids for years. Kay, who served as the public relations contact on many Angels road trips, was placed on leave shortly after Skaggs’ death and never returned to the team.
During Kay’s criminal trial, four former Angels players — Matt Harvey, Mike Morin, Cam Bedrosian and C.J. Cron — testified to receiving drugs from Kay. Harvey — who like the other players testified under an immunity deal with prosecutors — also admitted to providing drugs to Skaggs himself.
Adam Chodzko, a former supervisor of Kay’s, testified during the criminal trial that Kay had described to him watching Skaggs snort drugs the night before he was found dead.
While his conviction may loom large in the upcoming civil trial, Kay himself is not expected to play a role in the legal proceedings. He is not on the witness list and apparently was not deposed during the lengthy pre-trial process.
Since providing players with drugs was not within the scope of Kay’s job duties, the question of whether the ball club is liable for Skaggs’ death will hinge on whether the family can prove that someone who supervised Kay knew or should have known that he was distributing the drugs.
The Angels have repeatedly said that an internal investigation determined that the organization did not know that Skaggs was using opioids or that any employee was providing opioids to players.
But Kay’s family has alleged that Tim Mead, the Angels’ former longtime vice president in charge of communications, learned several months before Skaggs’ death that Kay was supplying Skaggs with drugs. Mead has denied that he was aware of Kay’s and Scaggs’ arrangement. While Mead was listed as a potential witness in Kay’s criminal trial, he was never called to testify.
Heated legal clashes have led to numerous delays of the civil trial.
Attorneys for the family have accused the Angels of trying to “run out the clock” on a civil trial by dragging their feet during the discovery process, when potential evidence is exchanged between the two sides.
In the lead-up to the trial, attorneys for the Angels have accused the family’s attorneys of intentionally withholding until the last minute text messages the team argues demonstrate the pitcher’s “cavalier attitude toward drug risks.”
Should a jury find that the Angels are liable for Skaggs’ death, his future lost earnings would likely play a large role in calculating financial damages. Skaggs was earning a $3.7 million salary in his final season, and had one more season to go before he would enter free agency.