Angels settle wrongful-death suit with Tyler Skaggs family over fentanyl-laced pills

The Los Angeles Angels and the family of Tyler Skaggs reached a confidential settlement Friday in the wrongful-death lawsuit tied to Skaggs’ 2019 overdose, a two-month civil trial showed. The case examined whether the team bore responsibility after Skaggs received a fentanyl-laced pill attributed to Eric Kay, the Angels’ former communications director who was later convicted in connection with the incident. Skaggs died in a Southlake, Texas hotel room before a scheduled game against the Rangers; authorities found a toxic mix of fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol in his system.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The Skaggs family had sought roughly $118 million for lost earnings, compensation for pain and suffering, and punitive damages against the team. Jurors had spent days weighing questions of negligence and fault, including how much responsibility, if any, should fall on the Angels as an organization while Kay’s role in distributing opioids to players was explored in depth.

The civil trial, which lasted about two months, featured testimony from current and former Angels players, club officials and family members. The defense argued that Kay supplied the pills and that Skaggs used them in private, not under the team’s control, and that the Angels would have offered help if they had known he was using. Plaintiffs contended the organization allowed a culture in which members of the club and staff enabled access to prescription medications and other risky behaviors.

Mike Trout testified about the team’s clubhouse culture, including how players sometimes paid Kay for stunts and other perks, though Trout said Skaggs’ use of hard drugs was not something he had seen. The trial also heard from Skaggs’ widow, Carli, and his mother, Debbie Hetman, who said the Angels knew or should have known about Kay’s pattern of distributing pills and that team officials did not adequately monitor Skaggs’ past addiction.

Carli Skaggs said she was aware of Skaggs’ prior struggles with prescription painkillers but did not realize he was still using at the time of his death. Hetman testified that the Angels never asked about her son’s prior addiction and that she had pressed for changes in how pain management was handled after his injury history.

The Angels stated that the death remains a tragedy and that the team did what it could to help Skaggs when it learned of concerns. The Skaggs family’s counsel described the settlement as a pathway to accountability and a warning about opioid use in professional sports. Jurors who participated in the deliberations described the process as lengthy and deliberative, and one juror expressed relief that the case has ended without having to assign a monetary figure to a life.