Trial underway over Angels' alleged role in baseball pitcher Tyler Skaggs' overdose death

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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A wrongful-death lawsuit that accuses the Los Angeles Angels of being responsible for the 2019 drug overdose death of one of its star pitchers began Monday.

Jury selection was underway in the long-awaited civil trial over whether the Major League Baseball team is responsible after one of its employees was convicted of providing drugs that led to the fatal overdose of pitcher Tyler Skaggs on a team trip to Texas.

Opening statements are expected by the end of the week.

The wrongful death lawsuit filed by Skaggs' widow, Carli, and his parents, alleges the Southern California team knew or should have known that its communications director, Eric Kay, was supplying drugs to Skaggs and at least six other Angels' players. Kay had a lengthy history of drug abuse and went to rehab while working for the team, which had many athletes who were playing through injuries and pain, according to the lawsuit.

“Essentially, we had this wonderful human being who was a great ballplayer who was on the cusp of becoming something greater, and he was struck down at the age of 27,” said the plaintiffs' lawyer Rusty Hardin. “That was caused by the Angels and their director of communications.”

The lawsuit also contends that Kay told federal agents two Angels employees knew about his drug dealings to players.

The Angels, however, counter that despite Kay's conviction, autopsy results showed that Skaggs had also been drinking and taking oxycodone. In court filings, the team said Skaggs didn't take painkillers the way they were prescribed but snorted them while drinking alcohol, and should have known the risk of doing so.

“Tyler was off-duty when he was in his hotel room,” said Todd Theodora, an attorney for the Angels. “The team had no ability to put a guard in his room or otherwise try to prevent him from mixing the alcohol with the pills he was taking that night.”

Hardin said the lawsuit seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in lost potential earnings as well as for the loss the family suffered.

The trial comes more than six years after the 27-year-old Skaggs 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 Skaggs had choked to death on his vomit and that a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.

Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing Skaggs with an oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl and sentenced to 22 years in federal prison. His federal criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five Major League Baseball players who said they received oxycodone from Kay at various times from 2017 to 2019, the years he was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.

The case has cast a spotlight on the use of painkillers by professional athletes as the United States has grappled with a wave of overdose deaths, many due to the potency of fentanyl. Overdoses were the leading cause of death for people 18-44 years old in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and reached 80,000 in that year and 110,00 in 2023.

After Skaggs’ death, Major League Baseball reached a deal with the players’ association to start testing for opioids and to refer those who test positive to the treatment board.

Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016, when the left-hander returned from Tommy John surgery. He struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time.

Before pitching for the Angels, Skaggs played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The trial in Orange County is expected to take weeks and could include testimony from players including Angels outfielder Mike Trout and the team's former pitcher, Wade Miley, who currently plays for the Cincinnati Reds.

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Associated Press writer Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles contributed.