Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout testified Tuesday that he loved his teammate Tyler Skaggs like a brother and never saw signs of drug use before he died of an overdose on a team trip to Texas in 2019.
Trout, a three-time American League Most Valuable Player who hit his 400th career home run this year, took the stand in a civil trial in Southern California over whether the Angels should be held responsible for its former communication director, Eric Kay, giving Skaggs a fentanyl-laced pill that led to his death.
Trout, who acknowledged he didn’t like speaking in public, told the courtroom about his friendship with Skaggs from the time they roomed together as rookies in Iowa and through playing for the Angels. Both were drafted out of high school as teens in 2009 — Trout from New Jersey, and Skaggs from California.
Skaggs was “very funny, outgoing, fun to be around” and toted around a boom box as the team’s deejay, Trout said.
Trout also said the two spent time together off the field, including going to Los Angeles Lakers games together, as Skaggs “loved the Lakers.” The two would also play basketball together and Trout admitted, “He had a better jump shot than me.”
Trout also said Kay was good at his job, getting players to give interviews and guiding them on which questions they might be asked. At one point, however, Trout said a clubhouse attendant suggested the players should stop paying Kay for stunts he was pulling, like taking a fastball to the leg, shaving off his eyebrows and eating a pimple off Trout’s back — “not proud of that one,” Trout said — due to concerns the money might be used for a “bad purpose.”
Trout said he had seen Kay acting “wired” and sweating and “the first thing that came to mind was drugs.”
He said it was clear he was “using something.”
“I just didn’t know what it was,” Trout told the court, adding he approached Kay and told him if he needed anything to let him know.
Trout said when Skaggs died, he didn’t know he had been on drugs and that drugs being the cause of his teammate’s death “didn’t enter my mind.” He said he was unaware other players had also been using drugs, other than marijuana, and that he did not realize Kay was allegedly supplying his teammates with opioids.
The testimony came at the trial for a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Skaggs’ wife, Carli, and his parents, who contend the Angels made a series of reckless decisions that gave Kay access to MLB players when he was addicted to drugs and dealing them. The team has countered that Skaggs was also drinking heavily and his actions occurred on his own time and in the privacy of his hotel room when he died.
The trial comes more than six years after 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 says Skaggs 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 a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl and sentenced to 22 years in federal prison. His federal criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB 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 family is seeking $118 million for Skaggs’ lost earnings, compensation for pain and suffering and punitive damages against the team.
Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
During Kay’s criminal trial, Carli Skaggs testified that she was unaware of the extent of her husband’s drug use and that she would have tried to do more to stop it had she known. She also testified that her husband felt pressure to stay healthy so he could continue his professional career.
Former pitcher Matt Harvey, one of the players who testified during the trial, said in court, “In baseball, you do everything you can to stay on the field. At the time, I felt as a teammate I was just helping him get through whatever he needed to get through.”
After Skaggs’ death, MLB reached a deal with the MLB Players Association to start testing for opioids and to refer those who test positive to the treatment board.
“A death of a major league player, it is a devastating event,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said when announcing the policy, adding that “it was a motivating factor in the commissioner’s office and the MLBPA and addressing in the context of our industry what really is a societal problem.”
In addition to Trout, other players, including former Angels pitcher Wade Miley, who currently plays for the Cincinnati Reds, could also testify in what is expected to be a weekslong trial in Santa Ana, California.
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