Angels aim to show Skaggs’ opioid habit began before joining team

Attorneys for the Los Angeles Angels aimed to paint a longer arc of drug and alcohol abuse by Tyler Skaggs as the late pitcher’s wife and mother testified in the wrongful-death lawsuit against the club Monday, Dec. 8.

Skaggs died in July 2019 after ingesting an Oxycodone pill laced with Fentanyl provided by former Angels communications director Eric Kay, who is serving a 22-year sentence after a criminal trial in Texas. Skaggs’ 2013 Percocet addiction and use of opioids were well-established, but attorneys for the franchise attempted to establish that Skaggs’ use preceded that period.

The left-hander was in the Arizona Diamondbacks system before a trade to the Angels and a former Diamondbacks minor leaguer, Eric Smith, testified that Skaggs took opioids recreationally as early as 2011, according to The Athletic.

The defense produced a 2011 text exchange between Skaggs and former major league infielder Mike Olt in which the pitcher asked, ‘Yo what’s good its Skaggs I know Smitty (Eric Smith) texted but I ran out of pain pills you know anyone with them.’

Texts from Skaggs to Carli, along with his wedding groomsmen, were also displayed, with Skaggs texting his groomsmen after the wedding, ‘I blacked hard,’ according to The Athletic. When Angels attorney Stephen Ladsous asked Carli if that was appropriate behavior, she replied, ‘He deserved to have a good time at his wedding.’

On the night Skaggs died after drinking alcohol – his blood-alcohol content was measured between .12 and .14 – and ingesting the pill, Carli texted him, ‘you have a drinking problem’ after he didn’t respond to several texts.

‘It was me saying something I didn’t mean,’ she said under direct examination.

Skaggs’ mother, Debbie Hetman, who had warned doctors of Skaggs’ struggles with opioids before 2014 elbow surgery, responded to photos of Skaggs drinking by noting the focus was on avoiding pills, not liquor.

‘If he wants to hang out with his friends, so long as he’s staying clean and off Percocet, and not drinking and driving and getting overindulged, I’m good,’ Hetman testified, according to The Athletic.

The Skaggs family is seeking $118 million in lost wages as well as punitive damages. The trial is scheduled to conclude by the end of this week, with closing arguments and deliberations scheduled to begin Dec. 15.