After three months of airing dirty laundry and paying lawyers, the Angels and the Skaggs family reached an undisclosed settlement today. We will updated this thread as more details emerge.
Sam Blum did an excellent job covering the trial and was the first in my feed to break the news.
This wraps up a saga that started in July of 2019 when Tyler ingested a fentanyl laced pill supplied to him by Angels employee Eric Kay, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Financial details are not yet available and may not emerge. The settlement comes as jurors were deliberating and had asked about determining punitive damages. It was at that point Angels attorneys increased the settlement offer and talks resumed in earnest.
Suspend Arte.
Steinbrenner got into trouble but MLB didn’t force a sale, they suspended him
Within a year of buying the team, Steinbrenner was in trouble. He pled guilty in 1974 to making illegal donations to Richard Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign. Steinbrenner paid a $15,000 fine and was banned from baseball until 1976.
#suspendArte
#suspendCarpino
I think this makes sense as it sends a strong message and more or less tells Arte to sell without forcing him to.
But in what world would this actually happen?
I highly doubt today’s ownership circle would allow this to happen as it sets a precedent for their own suspensions and their collective ego will probably rally around Moreno.
It’s time for Arte to spend money on a Japanese third baseman so people can talk about something else.
Cross that off the list….
Murakami to White Sox
This case was always going to settle as the NDA keeps this from getting way out oh hand and closes the book forvever on this. The jury (and their timeline) helped the two sides get closer to a number to agree upon as I’m sure they had an idea of the number the jury was going to submit.
Do you mean NDA or Confidentiality provisions in the Settlement Agreement?
Both any and all. The fact that no one can talk about it and nothng will be factua in the media means the public will forget about it soon. Knowing Arte, he wants to have something in place ASAP to change the news and image of the team. So my guess is we see a signing for the Halos in the next few days to have us talking about something positive with the team.
The thing is – a free agent signing means the player (1) actually wants to play for this Org or (2) is desperate and agrees to come here because he may not get a chance elsewhere or (3) the Angels substantially outbid everyone else.
We know that #3 is unlikely. And #1 doesn’t seem to be happening very often.
So free agent signings seem to be coming from the #2 group which is intentionally named/numbered. 💩
No one cares about this situation outside of a few Angels fans. The team
is barely visible in the OC and nothing outside of it.
Hey Arte, here’s your chance…
I actually think the opposite happens. Arte likes to make things happen to flip the script. I bet they make a big splash now in FA
Needs to change the narrative
What’s left?
We all know this got settled because Arte knew he was going to lose. But remember in big cases like this, there is often settlements at this stage because the plaintiff’s legal team wants to get paid and doesn’t want to wait years in delays and appeals. Also, they know the damages might not be awarded near as much as they think and a lot could still go wrong in deliberations and appeal.
Arte’s used to losing, his business has lost over 900 games since 2014.
Really good angle on the attorney fees. People forget about that.
I’d much rather get paid now than have to do more work to get paid later.
I read a report that the Angels withdrew their offer to Song before he then signed with the Padres.
I wonder if Arte canceled a deal for a few million when he saw he was going to lose.
We’ll see how the off-season plays out now.
They just signed Jamie Moyer too.
Minnie Minoso to a MiLB contract too…
I’ll laugh at this once someone else signs Verlander and Sherzer..
What an absolute embarrassment. Equally inept in the courtroom as they are running a mlb franchise.
As a result of the Skaggs trial outcome and large money settlement to the Skaggs family, it has been announced the Angels have signed pitchers Chuck Finley and Troy Percival, as well as third baseman Troy Glaus and outfielder Darren Erstadt to major league player contracts at the California minimum wage rate.
Would be better than current roster even at their advanced age. .
“After the trial, the jury foreman, who identified himself only as Richard, said jurors were close to a verdict when the judge told them to stand down. He said jurors had decided on non-punitive damages ranging from $70 million to $90 million and were close to an initial punitive damage figure of $10 million. Had a verdict been rendered, attorneys would have made arguments about punitive damages before a decision on that number had been made.
ESPN spoke with six of the 12 jurors after the trial. All had some division of culpability for all three parties, meaning they believed Skaggs himself bore some responsibility for his own death. The total amount awarded to the Skaggs family would have been reduced had Skaggs’ culpability been subtracted from the total.
One juror said he felt it was Tim Mead, the Angels’ head of communications and Kay’s boss, “who got the Angels in trouble” by not reporting Kay to his superiors when he had been acting erratically in the months and years before Skaggs’ death.”
I always thought Tim Mead was a good guy, goes way back before Arte’s cronies came into being. Poor Tim got saddled with Pimple-head Eric Kay and seemed to try and help him vs. snitching on him. The Skaggs death seemed to weigh heavily on Mead. So much so, he resigned from his primo job at Canto HOF.
Huh? Tim Mead didnt get saddled with Eric Kay because of Arte, Mead hired Kay and then kept elevating him into higher and higher positions of authority even before the inception of Arte’s reign for terror.
You are right about one thing FA, just about everyone that has ever met him (myself included) believes Mead is a really nice guy . But that does not preclude my believe that hes probably the primary reason Kay facilitated Tyler Skaggs death and not some other “disposal” S’moe in Skaggs’ orbit.
I’m sure Mead meant well but there was NFW Kay should have still been working anywhere near the Angels Locker Room in those precious last years leading up to Skaggs death. And that is solely on Tim Mead.
Yes. Lots of people like that. Tim too.
Good guys, But shouldn’t have management responsibilities.
Tim as a manager should have reported this up the chain.
Met Tim and couldn’t have had a better impression of him. He told me to contact him if I ever visit Cooperstown and he’d make sure I got the best tour possible.
However, if you look at pretty much everyone in rehab they always had an enabler. Typically a well meaning person in their lives.
A guy like Mead fits that enabler role perfectly. He probably saw the good in Kay and thought he could help him in his own way. And that way led to disaster.
I can change him.
That Coopertown gig was a once in a lifetime time job
Saddled in a sense that Kay had, undetected during the hiring process, or developed his druggie baggage and became the team goofball/pharmacist afterwards. Mead (and others) handled so poorly that it haunted Tim once the police investigation declared Kay was a supplier that fateful night in Texas. I am making an unfounded connection that Tim felt remorse of his lack of actions against Kay. From Tim’s statement after stepping down from the HOF board:
“Try as I might, even with the unwavering support of my family, these last 22 months have been challenging in maintaining my responsibilities to them.”
Something was obviously eating at his focus.
Hot take I guess but Tim Mead can have colossally erred in judgement here and still be a good person. He acted I’m sure out of compassion for someone who was basically like family to him. It was obviously the incorrect decision when you know the outcome, zoom out and are emotionally detached from the day-to-day situation though.
Anyone who has had an addict in their family I’m sure can relate. You usually don’t define them by the moments they look erratic and messy because thats not who they are most of the time. You know a different version of them and want to see that version flourish.
What is not talked enough with this case is that every professional sports organization in every sport has had some version of Skaggs, Kay and Mead over the years and the difference is just that fentanyl wasn’t involved and therefore nobody is aware of it. The Angels organizationally blew this IMO but I don’t think it was because Tim Mead was a bad person. I think he genuinely thought he was helping, he was just wrong.
Over the course of four years Arte paid his legal team through discovery, depositions, countless motions, an entire three month trial, and then a few days of deliberations.
Only to settle as a verdict was being finalized.
Brilliant money management.
Arte may have had his regular council on retainer, but the majority of the defense was provided by the insurance companies. They pay the legal fees in this situation.
Oh, so this is a better move than Napoli for Wells.
As it relates to the baseball operations, let’s hope so.
Its the equivalnet of doing deals at Del Taco
The money is one thing. The way they allowed their reputation to get absolutely nuked amongst the public and, importantly, their own players who were watching how this played out is mind boggling. I couldn’t wreck this team’s brand and goodwill more thoroughly than they did if I was actively trying to.
They had to know that would be the result of passing on a settlement pre-trial and didn’t care. Same ego and ineptitude that drives every other embarrassment they find themselves a part of.
“We are deeply grateful to the members of this jury, and to our legal team. Their engagement and focus gave us faith, and now we have finality. This trial exposed the truth and we hope Major League Baseball will now do its part in holding the Angels accountable.”
The longer that jury held out and was deliberating, the more uncomfortable it became for the defense. I have to think that to motivate them to settle the number had to at least be $100 million. I wonder if Arte had to pay any of it himself or whether it was all insurance.
We’ll know by who Perry signs….and doesn’t sign.
Unsettled business now settled. Arte sell please.
To whom? The Monforts? Bob Nutting? Just wondering. The peanut guy up north hasn’t got the didge, Stan has his hands full of billions, and Ballmer isn’t in any spot to stand scrutiny right now, so… whom?
I like Stan the Man
I’m not sure Kroenke likes baseball but what the Kroenke family has done with The Avalanche, Arsenal, The Rams and even the Nuggets has been tremendous and would be welcome in Anaheim.
Yup. “Massively Rich Owner” doesn’t do much for me on it’s own. Current Warriors, Trailblazzers, Mets, Clippers etc. But Kroenke seem to somehow find good management with a good plan for all his teams.
Are we just naming bad owners and leaving out competent ones for the sake of a straw man? To defend Arte Moreno and his track record?
Bootlicking a winner I can understand. Simping for a pathetic loser is something else.
Unless he’s worried about his stadium property sale ( The scrutiny on the property and the Surplus Land act is quite the wild card) or the massive increases he will be facing in his insurance policy premiums (which I doubt would be large enough to effectuate change) Arte’s not selling anytime soon.
Which means business as usual until Father Time finally catches up with him.
If Arte wanted to maximize the return when selling the franchise, he’d put a winner on the field.
MLB needs to intervene and get Arte to sell.
All I want for Christmas is an announcement that Arte is selling.
I’m betting he still settled for less than the amount. But I bet it was a lot more than what he could have done earlier.
So glad it’s over.
have a skaggy good time with the cash girls
They seem ghoulishly happy. Good for them.
Hurray legal system.
Arte got his ass handed to him in court.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2025-12-19/tyler-skaggs-settlement-angels-damages-wrongful-death-trial
Over/under Arte settled for more or less than 100m
My reporter buddy at the OCR thinks $200 million
Even if it’s only half of that, it again shows how idiotic the decisions that this organization make. This thing probably could’ve been settled for a lot less than that and all of this negative information would not have become as public had they settled pre-trial.
I really hope this leads to the sale of team.
I would have won! That’s exactly what I thought would be awarded
Your winnings, sir!
Let it ride!
Big dub for lawyers who got 99.9% of their billable hours to reach the same finish line that was staring everyone in the face for 4 years.