Angels P Tyler Skaggs has Died

[ramssuperbowl99]

Go get 'em DEA.

Not something I'd thought I'd say today tbh.

[ramssuperbowl99]

 

Quote

A public relations employee for the Los Angeles Angels told federal investigators that he provided oxycodone to Tyler Skaggs and abused it with him for years, and that two team officials were told about Skaggs' drug use long before his death, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

Eric Kay, the Angels' director of communications, also gave U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents the names of five other players who he believed were using opiates while they were Angels, the sources said.

 

[Forge]

This is not going to end well for the Angels and MLB

[naptownskinsfan]

So as I've sized it up: the Angels director of communications supplied drugs for himself and Skaggs, and partaked in them despite being in rehab multiple times.  It sounds like he watched Skaggs take the drugs that killed him.  

Further, he told the DEA that he supplied drugs to five other players, and that two other Angels officials knew of the drug use and said nothing to the commissioners office or the team.  

Oh, and said director of communications is currently on paid administrative leave.  

The Angels and MLB are in for it, and deservedly so.  

[Leader]

3 minutes ago, naptownskinsfan said:

So as I've sized it up: the Angels director of communications supplied drugs for himself and Skaggs, and partaked in them despite being in rehab multiple times.  It sounds like he watched Skaggs take the drugs that killed him.  

Further, he told the DEA that he supplied drugs to five other players, and that two other Angels officials knew of the drug use and said nothing to the commissioners office or the team.  

Oh, and said director of communications is currently on paid administrative leave.  

The Angels and MLB are in for it, and deservedly so.  

Wouldnt the MLB liability come into play depending on when/if somebody was advised of this? Reports are some of the LAA folks learned about this but didnt report it up the ladder.

This guy - Eric Kay, the Angels' director of communications - is squarely in the crosshairs. He's the pusher man.
This guy - Tim Mead, the former Angels vice president of communications and Kay's supervisor - is reported to have been told about this all - but he's denying any knowledge.

"I have had a lot of conversations with Eric Kay about a lot of things, but opioids and Tyler Skaggs were not one of them," Mead said. Asked if he was ever aware that Skaggs used opioids before his death, Mead said no.

Under Major League Baseball's rules, any team official made aware of a player's drug abuse must report it to the commissioner's office immediately. An MLB official familiar with discussions between the Angels and MLB but who spoke on the condition of anonymity said no one from the Angels ever made such a notification.

"MLB was unaware of any of these allegations," an MLB spokesman told Outside the Lines. "MLB will fully cooperate with the government investigation and conduct its own investigation when the government investigation is completed."

[BayRaider]

This looks terrible for the Angels. Covered up multiple guys using hard drugs without alerting authorities and a director supplying it? 

This could become the biggest story in sports since Mike Vick and even 10x worse. Like disband the Angels levels of bad. 

[bigbadbuff]

2 hours ago, BayRaider said:

This looks terrible for the Angels. Covered up multiple guys using hard drugs without alerting authorities and a director supplying it? 

This could become the biggest story in sports since Mike Vick and even 10x worse. Like disband the Angels levels of bad. 

#freeMikeTrout

[TLO]

Certainly interested to see how much upper management knew versus how much this is Kay trying to cover his own ***. If they knew, it’s gonna get real ugly, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Arte forced to sell the team. I find it hard to believe that Arte and Co. wouldn’t know if Kay really told all of this to Mead. I’ll wait to jump to those conclusions though. cant really blame Kay for this, either. The two junkies (adults responsible for their own decisions) found each other. It sucks and it’s a tragic end, but I don’t know that playing the blame game is going to solve much. 

[ramssuperbowl99]

On 10/12/2019 at 3:47 PM, Forge said:

This is not going to end well for the Angels and MLB

As part of this, every e-mail or text message the Angels have sent for a few years is going to be subject to scrutiny. It's hard to see this ending well, even if it's not directly related to Skaggs.

[ramssuperbowl99]

 

[bigbadbuff]

Honestly pretty surprised Maddon took this job all things considered 

[MWil23]

To be honest, while this event is awful and tragic, hopefully SOME good will come out of it in regards to discussing the big picture problem that's rampant in baseball:

*With such a long season, many pitchers, particularly relief pitchers, do/have done pain killers for YEARS to get through the grind of the season/play through the pain.

I could name at least a handful of guys that I played DII college baseball with that popped pills like crazy, especially a mediocre LOOGY on our staff, who may not have been able to break glass with his fastball. Another was a guy who had multiple arm surgeries in his time at school, who was adamant about getting back into the starting fold/had to grind as a reliever. This went from "pain management" use to "recreational/scary" in a matter of no time...popping pills when we were playing poker, in the mornings before games to numb the pain, and after games to deal with pain, after dinner to help with the nausea, etc.