LA Angels reject claims from family of Tyler Skaggs

We all remember the incredibly sad and unfortunate passing of LA Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who was just 27 years old.

He passed away in a Texas hotel room with fentanyl and oxycodone found in his sytem.

Family members of  Skaggs have now filed wrongful death lawsuits against the Halos as well as two former Angel employees. This was announced on Tuesday by Rusty Hardin, their family attorney.

The LA Angels deny the accusations from the family of Tyler Skaggs.

The LA Angels say that they looked into Tyler Skaggs’ death on their own, and found that the team did not know that Skaggs was using opioids, nor did anybody hear of a team employee supplying opioids to any Angels player.

The reason they had to clarify themselves is because the lawsuits allege that negligence by the Halos and a couple former people that worked for the Angels directly led to Skaggs’ death. Those two employees were Eric Kay and Tim Mead.

Kay is the former director of communications for the Angels. He received criminal charges in Texas for distribution of fentanyl in connection with the death of the starting pitcher. Kay pleaded not guilty and is going to stand trial in the month of August.

“The lawsuits are entirely without merit and the allegations are baseless and irresponsible,” said Marie Garvey, who is a spokesperson for the LA Angels.

Later in the Angels’ statement Garvey added that the Halos “will vigorously defend these lawsuits in court.”

Mead said that he did not know that Skaggs could have been using opioids. He also said that he didn’t know that Kay had distributed opioids to any players on the Angels.

“(The Skaggs family) wants to get to the bottom of the circumstances surrounding Tyler’s tragic, untimely and completely avoidable death, and to hold the individuals and entities – including the Angels – accountable for the actions that contributed to it,” said Hardin.

This was already an awful situation with Skaggs’ death, and now it may be proven to be even worse than previously thought.