Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout testified that he confronted former team staffer Eric Kay about his alleged drug use before teammate Tyler Skaggs’ death in 2019.
Trout, 34, took the stand on Tuesday, October 21, in Skaggs’ wrongful death lawsuit, aimed to determine whether Kay’s behavior raised enough red flags for the Angels to warrant team intervention before Skaggs’ accidental overdose death in a Southlake, Texas, hotel room. Skaggs was 27 when he died.
He was found with a mix of fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol in his system and is believed to have choked to death on his own vomit.
Kay, 50, is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for providing Skaggs with the fentanyl-laced oxycodone pill that a jury determined led to his death.
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The Skaggs family is seeking $118 million in estimated loss of earnings plus additional punitive damages and damages for their suffering. The team is arguing that it was unaware of Skaggs’ drug use or that Kay was supplying drugs to players.
“Angels Baseball did not kill Tyler Skaggs, and Angels Baseball only wishes that he could have come forward and told us about his struggles,” Angels attorney Todd Theodora said in his opening statement. “Told us about his challenges with drugs and we could have helped him.”
He continued, “Really, this is a simple case. Tyler, and Tyler alone, decided to obtain the illicit pills and take the illicit drugs along with the alcohol the night he died.”
Trout said that when a team employee informed him of Kay’s alleged drug use, he confronted the former communications director, telling him, “You have two boys at home, and you have to get this right.”
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The three-time American League MVP said that he saw Skaggs drinking alcohol but was not aware he had used any drugs other than marijuana and that the late pitcher showed no outward signs of drug use. He also said he was surprised to learn multiple teammates were using illicit drugs after they testified in Kay’s 2022 trial that Kay had supplied them.
When Trout became aware that Kay may have been using drugs, he testified that he began to limit the autographed items that he would provide, worried that Kay would “misuse them” or sell them for money to buy drugs.
“I made sure when he brought them [autographed items] down, I knew who they were going to,” Trout said.
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Skaggs’ family attorney Bill Haggerty questioned Trout about the 11-time All-Star allegedly daring Kay to perform a series of bizarre acts, which Trout referred to as “horseplay.” He admitted to participating in dares that included Kay eating a popped pimple off of Trout’s back, taking a 90 mph fastball to the leg, eating a bug off the clubhouse floor and shaving his eyebrows.
“I’m not proud of it,” Trout said.
Trout testified that the dares ended when he was informed by clubhouse attendant Kris Constanti that Kay was using the money made from them for “illicit purposes.”
“The first thing that came to my mind was drugs,” Trout said when asked what he thought Constanti meant by that. “That’s what I got out of it. I don’t know what kind of drugs.”
