After six years of pain, investigations and allegations, there could finally be justice served towards the Los Angeles Angels baseball organization towards their inability to potentially prevent the painkiller and drug-induced death of Tyler Skaggs, who passed away after asphyxiation in a hotel room in Southlake. Texas on July 1, 2019. The unexpected death of Skaggs only added to the Angels’ painful history of tragic deaths of players during the season, with the infamous murder of Lyman Bostock Jr in 1978 and the car crash accident that killed rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart in 2009 as tearful episodes in the franchise’s history. But the Skaggs incident probably tops all of them due to the culpability of an employee who was a part of the Halos’ traveling party on that early summer road trip to the Lone Star State who had a history of providing drugs to Skaggs and other players. If they would have done their due diligence and fired that employee sooner, then a tragedy could have been prevented. But there was also a personal issue on Tyler’s end with his chronic use of painkillers due to the grind of pitching in the big leagues and making almost 30 starts each year without any trips to the injured list. Sadly, that combination led to a tragedy that could have been prevented with therapy and drug reduction programs to address this issue towards a big league pitcher who in a way took his own life due to a medical episode. But here we are, finally with a trial filed with the Skaggs family as plaintiffs and the Angels baseball organization as the defendant.

This personally affects me since this tragedy occurred at the point of time when the Halos were at the beginning of the post-Mike Scioscia era. Brad Ausmus was the manager of the team in 2019 and I had never known any other manager in Angels history than Scioscia. Since his stepping down, pain and losing seasons have only followed with the Angels having seven consecutive seasons with records well-below .500 and massive failures with rosters that have featured a few of the best players in baseball for their generations. Skaggs’ death has hung over this team as there are only a few players left on the active roster at the time of his passing. Mike Trout, Taylor Ward and potentially-outgoing infielder Luis Rengifo were on the 2019 team when this sad episode unfolded and even though time heals all wounds, scars are a different matter. Skaggs left behind a wife Carli and she was pregnant at the time of his death. His mother and father are also a part of the lawsuit against the Angels and it alleges that Tyler was robbed of potential compensation that he could have earned if he had continued his trajectory of being a starting pitcher and could have qualified for a massive contract in free agency, which he was due to enter after the 2020 season but never did due to his death that they are blaming the Angels organization for. Arte Moreno, team president John Carpino and others are having their feet held to the fire with them being deemed responsible for running an organization that did not properly address the concerns of drug-dealing of painkiller drugs laced with oxycodone by a former communications staffer named Eric Kay, who was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for being the main culprit behind Skaggs’ death in a criminal trial that concluded in February 2022. But that was not enough for the grieving family of Tyler Wayne Skaggs, who didn’t even live into his thirties, and they had filed this lawsuit against the Angels in 2021. After some delays in the court system, this trial has finally begun in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, Calif this week and witnesses will be called from both sides that either experienced this event, performed the autopsy on Skaggs’ dead body or have knowledge of asphyxiation, and also members of Skaggs’ family as well who may or may have not been aware of his painkiller history.

So, with this trial occurring immediately after the season ended for the Halos on the field and occurring for six weeks before Thanksgiving, opening statements were delivered on Mon Oct 13, 2025. The Skaggs family’s attorney, Rusty Hardin(who has worked a lot of high profile cases, including with women who were raped as massage therapists by NFL QB DeShaun Watson), eviscerated the Angels organization, stating that they knew about Skaggs’ painkiller addiction and Eric Kay’s own drug problems and did nothing to address the issues properly enough to prevent this tragedy. Shawn Holley was the actual attorney who delivered the plaintiffs’ opening statement, but Hardin described both statements as “two people at the same accident scene and… 180-degree different views”. Holley has an interesting legal background, being a part of the “Dream Team” of lawyers who were a part of O.J Simpson’s defense team as part of The People vs. O.J Simpson civil trial that concluded 30 years ago this month. She is a celebrity lawyer, so a deceased major league ballplayer might be a bit below her paygrade. Holley gave a 52-minute opening statement where she placed the blame of Skaggs’ death clearly on the Angels, whom she claimed were aware of Eric Kay’s drug issues dating all the way back to 2013. Holley gave the jurors a preview of what they would hear over these next few weeks of testimony about Kay, who was allegedly caught snorting lines of cocaine in the Angels’ clubhouse kitchen in 2016 and also an incident in 2017 when the team’s public relations head Tim Mead saw drug pills in individual baggies inside Kay’s house.

The Angels’ defense attorney, Todd Theodora, was on the defensive for the club, saying that “Angels Baseball did not kill Tyler Skaggs” and that the team wished that Tyler “could have come forward and told us about his struggles”. Taking on a remorseful tone, Theodora placed the blame for Skaggs’ death on Skaggs and Skaggs alone because of “his reckless decision to mix large amounts of alcohol with narcotics on the night he died”. Technically, he died in the early morning hours of Mon, Jul 1, 2019, but sure let’s have it be a “nighttime” incident… where Kay provided those pills to Skaggs in his hotel room and thus Skaggs made that “reckless” decision on his own accord. Making this nearly hourlong statement even more painful for Skaggs’ family was that Arte Moreno and John Carpino were sitting right behind the bench of the defense team that they crafted to cover their tracks, because that is their intent- to absolve themselves of any responsibility to financially compensate the family of a deceased player who their front office drafted, traded away and re-acquired in an offseason trade that had one of the best offensive prospects in franchise history traded to Seattle. What a sick joke.

Now this trial is not a criminal one, although it could very well be the most painful financial episode in Angels history next to the failed stadium sale deal killed off due to former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu’s campaign corruption scandal and also all of the failed free agent signings during the Moreno era(a la Vernon Wells, Josh Hamilton, C.J Wilson and Anthony Rendon). The Angels might have to pay a big free agency contract sum to the Skaggs family if they are found guilty of being responsible for not preventing Tyler Skaggs’ tragic death. The jurors will hear from both sides of the aisle, as Shawn Holley/Rusty Hardin and Todd Theodora and his defense team will provide two different versions of a very painful tale over the next several weeks.

We got this fiasco of a case started with Tim Mead’s testimony on Wed, Oct 15 when he said that he searched Eric Kay’s desk for drugs twice before the tragic incident in Texas occurred. Mead admitted that he had “suspicions and doubts” about Kay’s drug usage, but he never found anything in the workplace. Mead said that he thought Kay was taking “prescription medication” for bipolar disorder and other mental health issues. For Mead, he said that he rarely reported Kay’s behavior to the Angels brass, but he did use one instance in 2017 to call upon a Human Resources employee to get help for Kay. Mead testified that he didn’t “play God” with decisions when it came to Kay, but Hardin pointed out some important distinctions when it came to Mead reaching out to Kay’s wife Camela regarding Eric’s continued erratic behavior.

Mead also mentioned an incident in 2018 when Kay was hospitalized after suffering from a heat-related illness at Angel Stadium. Mead said it was the worst he had ever seen Kay and he realized at that moment he couldn’t handle this problem on his own. Mead also told Hardin in his testimony that he did not recall seeing baggies of drugs in Kay’s house the day after a failed drug intervention in 2017, an important fact brought up by the prosecution in this case. Mead also clarified that he never went to the Angels Human Resources department with potential complaints about Kay or when poor and erratic decisions were made by the ex-communications staffer. Mead said that Kay might have been in violation of the Angels’ drug policies if he was intoxicated at any time on the job from any kind of drug, prescribed or unprescribed. In concluding his questioning of Mead, Hardin asked him if good people can sometimes be negligent and Mead responded affirmatively. Hardin then asked Mead whether people trying to do the right thing can make mistakes and Mead replied in the affirmative as well. Finally, Hardin asked Mead if this “good intention/mistake” scenario maybe happened in this case with his inability to report Eric Kay to the leaders within the Angels’ organization, to which Mead replied “No, sir, I don’t”.

Well it sure sounds like this situation has that hypothetical scenario painted all over it. Eric Kay appears to have been a drug addict within the Angels organization and the inability to stop him from becoming a reliable drug dealer to players such as Skaggs is totally unacceptable. The blame should lie on the Angels’ organization’s leaders for this. That includes Human Resources, Tim Mead(who resigned from his most recent position as Baseball Hall of Fame Museum president in 2021) and Arte Moreno and John Carpino for allowing this situation to devolve into such a horrifyingly tragic end to Tyler Skaggs’ life. The Skaggs family is seeking approximately $118 million in estimated lost wages along with an undetermined amount in damages from the Angels themselves. So, as I said, a massive free agency sum will have to be paid out by the organization. Not towards active free agents on the market, but towards the grieving family of a deceased player. This might make the front office less aggressive in free agency spending this offseason after they brought in a couple of veteran players in a rather active free agent cycle last year. If the jury finds the Angels organization guilty, it will add to the public humiliation of this tragic dumpster fire of a franchise that has gone from one of the more successful teams in the western divisional sphere of MLB to one of the worst teams in the league in a timeframe of ten-plus years. This dark cloud must be dealt with, and there will be more reckonings to come. The Tim Mead testimony was just the beginning. More witnesses shall come forth and there will be more pain from both sides of the aisle.

For the prosecution, they feel like this case is worth pursuing for more justice for the Skaggs family. Eric Kay might be behind bars, but their loved one was robbed of potentially making millions in free agency contract signings. The defense believes that Tyler Skaggs robbed himself of that opportunity and the Angels organization should be absolved from any blame towards his death. I am not sure how this case will end and I am rather conflicted by the implications of it. For one, I want to see this trial finally come to a conclusion and for justice to be served. Whether that comes in the form of a massive payout to the Skaggs family or an empty promise of being sure that nothing like this ever happens again within the organization, we shall see what happens. But one thing is for sure- this might be the final nail in the coffin of a lot of off-field scandals that have occurred in the past ten years under Arte Moreno’s ownership of this ballclub. At least I hope it is the final one, because I can’t take stuff like this anymore as a loyal fan of the Angels. There is still a potential battle with the city of Anaheim over a new stadium deal that might force the team to actually return the city’s name to its own. But this is added on with the opposing clubhouse supply controversy via the manger of that area of Angel Stadium Don Harkins, the Harry Sidhu corruption scandal crisis that killed the stadium sale deal from the city of Anaheim to Arte Moreno’s own sports management company, the failed attempt of Moreno to put the franchise on the market to be sold only to pull it off the market a few months later and this horrendous situation with the family of Tyler Skaggs suing the team for negligence in not carrying out their duties and addressing the drug addict crisis within their organization before their loved one was a victim of fentanyl poisoning. Also, the Ippei Mizuhara gambling situation occurred while the former interpreter was an employee of the team, but was revealed after he went to work with the Los Angeles Dodgers following Shohei Ohtani’s massive free agency signing with the more successful team up the road. How many scandals can one baseball team endure? Most of them off the field, but still it’s bad publicity. Even though that doesn’t seem to lead to lower ticket sales, it definitely leads to public humiliation and shame.

Right now, more of that could be set to come the way of Angels Baseball, which is one of the cheaper tickets in all of sports but a massive cost of defeat and disappointment is the payoff for rooting for them as a fan. As long as Moreno is the owner, a shadow of darkness is laid over the team located in the heart of one of the most beautiful areas in the country and the world. If only he could sell the team sooner rather than later.