There has been a huge breakthrough in the Tyler Skaggs case.
According to the federal investigation, the drug, Fentanyl that killed Skaggs, was delivered to him the same day he died. They allege that former Angels’ Communications Director Eric Kay obtained fake oxycodone pills from one of his drug suppliers at Angel Stadium on June 30, 2019, just before Kay left with Skaggs and the team for a Texas road trip, according to prosecutors. He then gave the drugs to Skaggs at the hotel where Skaggs fatally overdosed.
The report also indicates that the Angels organization can be held responsible for the death of Skaggs. Kay is also suspected of operating a drug network throughout the clubhouse with several text message exchanges with suppliers.
“It is no coincidence that the Angels allowed Kay to be in the clubhouse,” says the Skaggs family lawsuit, inferring that Kay’s alleged purchase of painkillers for the players was “incidental to his employment.”
This story from Amy Dash and The League of Justice is crazy.
The government’s case extends to a larger theory that Kay was running a drug distribution operation within the Angels organization, allegedly contacting at least nine different drug suppliers to try to obtain pills for various Angels players, often using Skaggs as a middleman, according to government documents.
Speaking with another alleged dealer, Kay says “U have a son? Could hook him with a signed Trout ball for a trade if U want?” The alleged dealer replies, “We dodger fans my boi lol.”
The Angels organization has been accused of having a toxic work culture and forcing players to play through the pain.
It’s obviously easy to see why Skaggs’s family has a valid case. Skaggs was a good starter for the Angels in 2017 and 2019, but injuries slowed him down, and if the work environment is consensus on playing through pain, Skaggs had to follow along.
Kay denies all of this ever happened and has pleaded not guilty.
The Skaggs family attorney Rustin Hardin, also representative of DeShaun Watson, claims the Angels promoted a “drug addict to an executive position” with “unlimited access to the Angels’ players.” He was hired back in 1997 and has been documented as going to rehab multiple times.
With this new information out, I think the Skaggs family case is excellent, and this could all play out to be the biggest settlement a sports franchise has ever giving out, and in a sport like baseball with no salary cap, this could haunt the Angels for years to come.
Flip the page for a video of the breakdown of Skaggs’s death.