LA Angels Tuesday News Crash: Sweeps

There is a new story up today about the first day but this is yesterday’s and is comprehensive.

Trial pitting family of deceased pitcher Tyler Skaggs against Los Angeles Angels gets underway
By Sam Blum
Sept. 22, 2025

After four years of bitter legal battles over discovery, the Los Angeles Angels will go to court Monday as defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of former Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. At the heart of the upcoming trial is a central question: is a Major League Baseball team responsible for the death of one of its players?

It is expected that numerous current and former MLB players will testify, as well as several high-ranking Angels officials.
The Skaggs family is seeking $210 million in damages after Skaggs died on July 1, 2019 from a fentanyl overdose during an Angels road trip to Texas. Their side will have to show a jury that the Angels either knew or should have known that imprisoned former communications director Eric Kay was providing pills to Skaggs.
The Angels side will try to re-litigate the case against Kay, and thrust full responsibility for Skaggs’ death onto Skaggs himself.
The filings in this process have, at times, been explosive and contentious. In a filing in Orange County Superior Court on Thursday, Skaggs lawyers highlighted deposition testimony from a clubhouse attendant stating that he witnessed Mike Trout offering to pay for Kay’s rehab in 2018. The filing also included deposition testimony from four different Angels employees and executives, discussing clubhouse behavior they were aware of involving Kay — including eating a pimple off Trout’s back in exchange for cash. Other players were allegedly involved in other dares.
Throughout the process, the Skaggs side has accused the Angels of needlessly delaying the trial, and concealing key evidence entitled to them in the discovery process.
Now that the trial is officially beginning, here are answers to some of the most pressing questions about the case.
What will the Skaggs side argue?Skaggs lawyers will attempt to expose a culture within the Angels organization that allowed for Kay’s addiction to go largely unchecked, despite widespread knowledge of his drug problems.
They’ll highlight evidence suggesting Angels traveling secretary Tom Taylor and former Vice President for communications Tim Mead were notified of Kay and Skaggs’ dynamic before Skaggs died as the result of a fentanyl overdose in his Southlake, Texas hotel room. Taylor and Mead have previously declined to comment.

They’ll do this using text messages and testimony from Camela Kay, Eric’s wife, and his mother, Sandy Kay.
Camela Kay testified in her deposition that in April 2019, she told Taylor about Kay’s potential connection to Skaggs. Similarly, Sandy testified that she suggested to Mead that Skaggs might be receiving drugs from her son.
“I told him that Kelly (Kay, Eric’s sister) had said he told her those pills were for Tyler,” Camela testified that she told Taylor. Mead has previously said he was unaware that Kay was providing pills to Skaggs.
In a filing, the Skaggs side highlighted a log of Kay’s prescription history, showing evidence that Angels team physician Craig Milhouse was prescribing Kay the opioid Hydrocodone, and did so 15 times between 2009 and 2012.
Milhouse is also relevant to another part of the Skaggs’ case. In order to show that Kay was someone who would get drugs for players through various means, they’ll highlight testimony that Kay asked Milhouse to write a Viagra prescription for an unnamed person with the Angels.
Big picture, their goal is to show evidence that the Angels were aware of Kay’s addiction, and neglected to adequately address it, despite Kay’s direct access to the team and its players. This evidence will come from coworkers observing Kay acting erratically at work and in the press box, as well as players’ experiences interacting with Kay, and in some cases receiving pills from him.
Notably, the judge in this case has indicated she’s open to their arguments. In an August ruling denying the Angels’ motion for summary judgment, Judge H. Shaina Colover wrote, “There is evidence that … Angels Baseball had knowledge that Kay was distributing drugs to players and failed to take measures to get him to stop.”
Ultimately, the Skaggs side wants to show that if the Angels knew about Kay’s addiction, then they should have known he would be a liability to have in the clubhouse.

What will the Angels argue?The Angels’ argument will be centered on Skaggs’ responsibility in his own death. They’ll also seek to show that the team was not aware Kay was providing pills to Skaggs, and that it operated properly in dealing with Kay’s addiction.
“Under the law it is significant that Tyler Skaggs struggled with addiction for nearly a decade and knowingly used drugs from multiple different unsecured and illegal sources,” Angels attorney Todd Theodora told The Athletic in June.
The team has been paying for Kay’s legal defense, due to a shared interest in limiting the scope of his responsibility in Tyler’s death. If his conviction were to be overturned, it would help the Angels in their legal argument. If Kay is no longer criminally culpable, then the Angels’ civil culpability might also be impacted.
In team president John Carpino’s deposition testimony published in court filings earlier this week, he was asked if he disputed Kay’s conviction. Carpino said, “I do,” citing his belief that Kay had ineffective counsel and that there wasn’t enough fentanyl in Skaggs’ system to kill him.
“I am not in agreement with the jury’s decision,” he said.
The Angels have argued that Skaggs knowingly ingested dangerous and illegal pills, and that he had numerous drug sources, including former big league pitcher Matt Harvey, and Skaggs’ close friend Christopher Leanos. Harvey has previously declined to comment.
Leanos has not responded to a subpoena for his deposition testimony, and there is an active bench warrant for his arrest. The Angels also want to question Leanos about a deleted text exchange between him and Skaggs days before Skaggs died. The text, Angels attorneys argue, was Leanos warning Skaggs about the dangers of certain pills. The Athletic was not able to reach Leanos for comment.

The Angels will also argue that they had no recourse to fire Kay, because the team put him on leave to attend rehab in April 2019, and he successfully completed that rehab.
There will be evidence presented that numerous people in the organization were aware of Kay’s addiction before Skaggs died. But the Angels will argue that Kay’s recovery entitled him to return to his normal job.
“He has rights as an employee,” said Angels senior VP Molly Jolly in deposition testimony. “He’s, you know, protected in California for his privacy and to get treatment, and that’s what he did. And a doctor reinstated him to work.”
The Angels will also note that Skaggs’ family was aware of Tyler’s drug use, dating back to a 2013 addiction to Percocet, but that the team was never made aware of that addiction.
Which big league players might testify?Trout will almost certainly be called as a witness. His name was brought up in recent deposition testimony filed by the Skaggs family, though his actual deposition — taken in January — has yet to be released.
Trout offered to pay for Kay’s drug rehabilitation in 2018, according to former Angels clubhouse attendant Kris Constanti’s deposition testimony.
“We were over by Trout’s locker and Eric was asking for something, an autograph, I believe,” Constanti testified. “And (Trout) goes, “If you get help, I’ll pay for it. Aren’t you worried about your kids?”
Additionally, at least four witnesses testified that they’d heard Kay did gross or painful exercises in exchange for money. This included eating a pimple off of Trout’s back. There were other antics unrelated to Trout, such as deliberately getting hit by a batting cage fastball.
Through his attorney, Trout declined to comment.
Debbie Hetman, mother of Tyler Skaggs, hugs Mike Trout during a 2019 game where all Angels wore #45 in Skaggs’ honor. (John McCoy / Getty Images)
It’s also expected that pitcher Andrew Heaney — a very close friend of Skaggs — will testify about Skaggs, what he saw from his behavior and their friendship as a whole.
Harvey, who has admitted to being a separate drug source for Skaggs, could also be called to the stand. Former Angels C.J. Cron, Cam Bedrosian, Mike Morin all testified at Kay’s criminal trial that he provided them illegal pills. They’ve been deposed in the civil case, and could testify.
A witness list has not yet been made public.
Who are the lawyers?The Skaggs’ side’s top lawyers are both very high-profile.
Rusty Hardin, 83, has represented many athletes over the years, including pitcher Roger Clemens, who faced accusations that he perjured himself in front of U.S. Congress. The Houston-based lawyer also represented NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was accused civilly of sexual misconduct.
The family recently brought on Shawn Holley to be co-lead counsel in their case. Holley is best known for being a part of the legal defense team that defended O.J. Simpson in his criminal trial, resulting in his acquittal. She has also represented many celebrity clients, including former Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer.
The Angels are represented by Todd Theodora and his firm, Theodora-Ohringer. Theodora has represented the Angels for decades. In 2005, when the city sued the team for changing the name from the Anaheim Angels to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, he oversaw their successful defense of the name change.
Because both sides are expected to bring around a dozen lawyers, the judge said she was hoping to secure a larger courtroom for the trial.
What will be the court’s schedule?This trial is scheduled to take nearly two months from its Sept. 22 start date. The first two weeks are for “motions in limine,” when the judge will hear arguments and motions relating to the case before it actually begins.
Whether or not Kay’s criminal conviction holds up as evidence will be of paramount importance in that process. That will determine if the Angels can or cannot argue the circumstances surrounding Skaggs’ death, or present alternate theories of what happened. If the judge prevents such arguments from being made, it could shorten the length of the trial.

Jury selection is expected to start on Oct. 6, against the backdrop of the MLB playoffs. The judge said she wants to take the rare step of having six alternate jurors, meaning that 18 jurors will need to be selected. The lengthy trial, combined with the looming Thanksgiving holiday, creates extra concern that jurors will drop out.
Once the jury is selected, the actual trial will begin. In California, a unanimous verdict is not required; only nine of the 12 jurors need to agree on liability.
Could the two sides settle before, or during, the trial?Yes. Only about 1 percent of civil cases go to a trial, according to a 2017 study published by Duke Law School. The vast majority are resolved through settlements or some form of arbitration. That could still happen in this case. However, there is no indication that a settlement is being considered by either side.
Relations between the two sides have been extremely contentious. In a filing on Sept. 17, lawyers for the Angels alleged that the Skaggs family’s attorneys were committing witness tampering by allegedly hiding Garret Ramos, who is Skaggs’ half-brother and a witness the Angels would like to depose.
The Angels view Ramos as a key witness in this case. They presented criminal trial testimony that indicates he may have deleted a text message off of Skaggs’ cell phone in 2019, before law enforcement was able to access it.
There is a separate hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon to hear the Angels’ request for terminating sanctions, which the team hopes results in a dismissal of the case.
When the team made the witness tampering allegation in front of the judge, Hardin said, according to court filings, that “When you accuse another lawyer of a crime, you better be strapped on.” The Angels wrote in a filing that their lawyer “understood this as a threat of violence.”

“I’m flattered that they’re trying so hard to get me and our firm off the case,” Hardin told The Athletic, while denying the allegation. “That’s a compliment, and I take it that way.”
Even as it appears the two sides aren’t on track for a settlement, one could be reached during the trial as well, ending the proceedings and excusing the jury from rendering a verdict.
Will Eric Kay testify? How about Arte Moreno?It is still undecided whether Kay will take the stand. He declined to do so at his criminal trial, a decision he has said he regrets.
Ultimately the Angels’ case will likely seek to re-litigate important elements of his criminal case. And with the Angels funding his legal defense, there is a mutually beneficial partnership between the Angels and Kay, and it might be in the Angels’ best interest to have Kay testify.
It seems unlikely that Moreno, owner of the Angels, will be called to the stand. There’s no evidence that he has given deposition testimony at any point. However, Carpino will likely be called to the stand, as well as Jolly, another high-ranking Angels official, among others.
Is there precedent for a case like this?It appears that no MLB team has been found responsible for the death of a player. However, there are some tangential examples of teams and organizations receiving culpability if an athlete dies under their watch.
The family of former University of Maryland football player Jordan McNair was awarded $3.5 million after he collapsed and died from heatstroke during a team workout in May 2018.
Zeke Upshaw, an NBA G-League player, collapsed and died from cardiac arrest in March 2018. His family settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the Pistons and NBA.
In 2016, the NFL agreed to settle a billion-dollar lawsuit with thousands of former players related to head injuries. However, the NFL admitted no fault as part of the settlement.