on Tuesday<\/a>, with a spokesperson stating, \u201cNeither MLB or The Drug Oversight Committee, which is responsible for administering and overseeing MLB\u2019s Drug Policy and Prevention Program, was notified of or involved in the treatment of Eric Kay.\u201d<\/p>\nThe judge asked both parties to discuss the matter, but indicated she\u2019d listen to Hardin\u2019s arguments on Friday morning, when the trial returns from a one-day recess.<\/p>\n
Before the last-minute arguments, three separate witnesses testified on Wednesday. While much of the Skaggs family\u2019s case over the trial\u2019s first month has centered on Kay\u2019s conduct and the Angels\u2019 actions surrounding it, the witnesses on Wednesday were all related to Skaggs.<\/p>\n
Former Angels pitcher Ty Buttrey testified first, followed by Jeff Fishman, who was Skaggs\u2019 financial advisor and who also has served as an attorney representing the Skaggs family. Lastly, Tyler\u2019s father, Darrell Skaggs, who is in hospital care, appeared over Zoom.<\/p>\n
Buttrey testified that \u201cTyler was the leader of the Angels,\u201d along with then-Angels outfielder Kole Calhoun, when Buttrey first joined the club in 2018.<\/p>\n
When asked by Hardin, the Skaggs lawyer, for his reaction to the Angels\u2019 contention that Skaggs was a drug addict, Buttrey said, \u201cI take a lot of offense to that. Because he wasn\u2019t a drug addict.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Skaggs was emotionally \u201cconsistent\u201d and never displayed indicators of addictive or erratic behavior.<\/p>\n
Buttrey also pushed back on earlier testimony given by Angels PR staffer Matt Birch, who\u2019d said that Skaggs was a No. 4 or 5 starter on the club. Buttrey said he didn\u2019t think Birch was qualified to testify on the topic, in part because \u201che didn\u2019t play competitive baseball\u201d and that statistics don\u2019t paint the whole picture of a pitcher.<\/p>\n
The testimony came up as part of a larger argument about Skaggs\u2019 potential future earnings. Buttrey testified that Skaggs had the game\u2019s third-best 12-6 curveball, and added that \u201cTyler would have a job in baseball as a starter for a very long time.\u201d The Angels are arguing that Skaggs\u2019 potential future earnings, which are relevant to the lawsuit\u2019s damages claim, were between $0 and $30 million. The Skaggs side argues he would have made between $75 and $118 million.<\/p>\n
On cross-examination by Angels attorney Stephen Ladsous, Buttrey declined to answer several questions relating to Skaggs\u2019 drug use, including whether he felt it was inappropriate for Skaggs to ask Kay for pills soon after Kay exited rehab in 2019.<\/p>\n
When asked if he believed that Skaggs\u2019 drug use becoming public would have jeopardized his career, Buttrey said no.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers have a ton of drama and they routinely make $300 million,\u201d Buttrey said, adding that the drug use would be on the \u201clower side\u201d of all the various negative things that come out about players.<\/p>\n
Fishman, the financial advisor, testified about his relationship with Skaggs and conversations he had with the pitcher about his plans for the future. He said that Skaggs was responsible with his money and had a detailed life plan for how to manage his wealth.<\/p>\n
They\u2019d discussed his potential future earnings, with hopes that his next contract would be around five years and $65 million, and the possibility of becoming a lefty specialist reliever in the later years of his career and earning additional free agent contracts. Fishman said he was unaware of Skaggs\u2019 drug use.<\/p>\n
Angels attorney Kevin Dorse highlighted Fishman\u2019s role as the family\u2019s counsel, questioning whether or not he could provide impartial answers to his questions. Fishman did, however, when asked by Dorse, acknowledge that drug use could pose a risk of sudden loss of earnings for Skaggs\u2019 baseball career.<\/p>\n
The day\u2019s final witness was Darrell Skaggs, Tyler\u2019s father, and one of the lawsuit\u2019s three plaintiffs. Throughout the last six years, in nearly every public appearance, Tyler\u2019s mother Debbie Hetman and Tyler\u2019s wife Carli Skaggs have spoken on behalf of the family. Darrell, who suffers from Castleman\u2019s disease \u2014 an abnormal enlargement of the lymph nodes \u2014 has lived in multiple hospitals over the last several years.<\/p>\n
Darrell choked up when questioned about a conversation he\u2019d had with Tyler shortly before his death, in which Tyler indicated he\u2019d begun planning to start a family with Carli. It was something Darrell looked forward to, he said.<\/p>\n
Darrell said the two talked daily throughout Tyler\u2019s entire life, even as Debbie retained custody of Tyler following the parents\u2019 divorce when Tyler was just 4 years old. Darrell shared a story of Tyler helping out a special needs teammate on his high school basketball team, making sure he scored a basket in their final game \u2014 rebounding each of his misses until one went in the basket.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of kid Tyler was,\u201d Darrell said. \u201cAlways looking out for the underdog.\u201d<\/p>\n
On cross-examination, Dorse questioned Darrell about an intervention the family conducted in 2013, when Tyler was on the Arizona Diamondbacks, regarding Tyler\u2019s use of the drug Percocet. Darrell testified that he knew of the intervention, but that he wasn\u2019t familiar with the details. He said the two went to dinner afterward, where they had a long discussion about him using drugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about not doing it again,\u201d Darrell said.<\/p>\n
He said Tyler told him that it was then-teammate Wade Miley who had provided Percocet to deal with an injury Tyler had suffered during a game.<\/p>\n
Dorse also introduced a text message that Darrell sent his son in early 2017, in which the father was very critical of Tyler. \u201cYou\u2019re getting the rep of a damaged pitcher\u201d and \u201cthat\u2019s pissing me off,\u201d Darrell said, adding he was concerned the team would begin making plans to replace Tyler, who\u2019d returned from Tommy John surgery the year prior. He signed the message by saying he was a loving father, who was \u201cready to kick your ass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darrell said that some of the language in the text was an inside joke between him and his son.<\/p>\n
Lastly, Dorse also introduced several text messages between Darrell and Tyler, in which Tyler complimented the Angels for asking him to skip a start as he dealt with a hamstring issue, telling his dad the team had treated him well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA ANA, Calif. \u2014 An attorney representing the family of Tyler Skaggs accused an Angels vice president of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2322,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-288600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-los-angeles-angels","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}