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Former Angels staffer Eric Kay is currently serving more than 20 years in prison for providing pitcher Tyler Skaggs with the drugs that led to his death in 2019. The deceased player’s family has continued to pursue justice in civil court, and a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the franchise he played for has implicated an MLB veteran who’s currently a member of the Reds.
In 2019, Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs passed away at the age of 27 after being found unresponsive in a hotel room before an autopsy determined he’d choked on his own vomit with fentanyl, oxycodone, and alcohol in his system.
His death sparked an investigation that ultimately led to the arrest of Eric Kay, a communications director for the team who was charged with supplying Skaggs with the pills that the pitcher regularly consumed to fuel his opioid addiction (he was ultimately sentenced to 22 years in prison at the conclusion of his trial in 2022).
The Angels denied they had any knowledge of Kay’s illicit distribution of controlled substances, but that didn’t prevent Skaggs’ family from filing a wrongful death lawsuit in 2021 that seeks $210 million from the franchise they assert was culpable.
According to The Athletic, the team moved to dismiss the lawsuit at the end of May with a filing that coincided with the inadvertent publication of depositions linked to the case.
That included the testimony of Skaggs’ agent Ryan Hamill, who said he initially became concerned about his client’s drug use when he was playing for the Diamondbacks six years before his death. He noted Skaggs admitted to using painkillers after being confronted before naming a teammate as his plug, recalling:
“He came clean. He said he had been using—I believe it was Percocets—and he said he got them through Wade Miley.”
Miley is currently in the midst of his 15th MLB season after signing a contract with the Reds earlier this month. As the outlet notes, Kay floated similar accusations during his trial, but it’s worth noting Wiley (who declined to comment on the matter via his agent) has not been charged with any crimes nor listed as a defendant in the civil suit.