SANTA ANA, Calif. — Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout testified Tuesday that a team employee alerted him to possible concerns about drug abuse by its former communications director, Eric Kay, before the 2019 accidental overdose death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs in a Texas hotel room.
Trout said he confronted Kay directly, telling him, “You have two boys at home, and you have to get this right.”
Trout’s testimony brought the court case a step closer to establishing that Kay’s behavior was raising enough red flags to warrant team intervention before he provided the drugs that killed Skaggs at age 27. The Skaggs family is suing the Angels for wrongful death, seeking $118 million and asserting that the team violated its own rules by allowing Kay to remain on staff despite the dangers posed by his drug abuse.
Two team officials, communications vice president Tim Mead and traveling secretary Tom Taylor, testified earlier that they were unaware of Kay’s drug problem or had only indications of there being a problem with prescription medication. Attorneys representing the Skaggs family plan to call at least one witness — Kay’s wife — whose pretrial deposition ran directly counter to Taylor’s and Mead’s testimony, according to a report by The Athletic.
The Skaggs family’s lawsuit repeatedly refers to reporting by ESPN’s T.J. Quinn in October 2019, citing sources who told federal investigators that team officials knew of Skaggs’ drug use long before his death and that Kay was selling drugs to other players.
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Trout, 34, is an 11-time All-Star and became the first Angels player to testify in the civil trial.
Trout’s two-hour testimony alternated between lighthearted memories of his relationship with Skaggs and serious ones about bizarre behavior by Kay as his drug use became increasingly evident. Trout choked up at times during his testimony, and tissues were passed among Skaggs’ family members as they sat in the front row.
Plaintiff’s attorney Shawn Holley claimed in her opening statement last week that the Angels put Skaggs “directly in harm’s way” by continuing to employ Kay after behavioral issues pointed to a drug problem. Kay is serving a 22-year federal prison sentence for providing the fentanyl-laced oxycodone that caused Skaggs’ death.
Angels attorney Todd Theodora countered in his opening statement last week that the team is not responsible for activities Kay and Skaggs undertook in their off time. Team officials were not aware of Skaggs’ drug use or that Kay was providing drugs to players, the defense argues. Theodora said it was Skaggs who “decided to obtain the illicit pills and take the illicit drugs along with the alcohol the night he died.”
Trout testified he saw Skaggs drink alcohol but had not seen Skaggs use drugs other than marijuana and that Skaggs showed no outward signs of using drugs. Trout said he was surprised to learn that multiple teammates had been using illicit drugs. Multiple ex-Angels testified at Kay’s 2022 criminal trial that Kay provided them with oxycodone.
Trout testified that he was unaware of players taking illicit drugs or purchasing them from Kay, but he “may have heard” that when a player wanted Viagra, Kay would go to a doctor to handle that.
Trout said that when he became aware that Kay might be using drugs, he limited Kay’s ability to get autographs from Trout to make sure Kay wasn’t “misusing them” — that is, selling autographed material and using the money to buy drugs.
“I made sure when he brought them [autographed items] down, I knew who they were going to,” Trout said.
Before confronting Kay, Trout said he dared the communications employee to do multiple acts deemed as “horseplay” for varying amounts of money, including taking a 90 mph fastball to the body, eating a bug off the clubhouse floor and another crude act.
Trout’s descriptions pointed to the desperate extremes Kay was willing to go for money. Trout said he stopped offering to pay Kay for the acts when clubhouse attendant Kris Constanti suggested Kay was using the money for illicit purposes. Trout was asked in court how he interpreted that.
“The first thing that came to my mind was drugs,” Trout said. “That’s what I got out of it. I don’t know what kind of drugs.”
Trout said he saw Skaggs for the last time on an elevator at the team hotel the night of his death and that he broke down in tears during a team meeting the following day when he learned Skaggs had died.
He recalled Kay asking Trout to speak to the news media, which Trout said “would be tough.” The days after Skaggs’ death included an emotional home game at which Skaggs’ mother, Debbie Hetman, threw out the first pitch. Trout recalled how all the Angels players wore Skaggs jerseys and that Trout hit a home run in his first at-bat during a combined no-hitter for the Angels that night.
“It felt good to hit the homer,” Trout said. “But emotional.”
Hetman sat in the front row of the courtroom Tuesday next to Skaggs’ widow, Carli.
