Angels center fielder Mike Trout testified Tuesday in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the widow and parents of Tyler Skaggs, telling the court he grew leery that a "hyper" team public relations official who was convicted of providing a fatal dose of fentanyl to Skaggs was selling Trout's autographs to pay for a drug habit.
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The soft-spoken Trout appeared a bit uncomfortable with some of the questioning and admitted he was no fan of public speaking, at one point raising his hand for the oath to a team attorney before being directed to the well of the courtroom to do it with the court clerk.
Trout said he met Skaggs when they were both drafted in the first round by the Angels in 2009 out of high school. The two were roommates living in the basement of a host family when they played rookie ball in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Skaggs was "very outgoing, fun to be around," Trout said.
Then Trout got called up to the minor league team in Rancho Cucamonga and Skaggs was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. The two kept in touch somewhat over the years until the Angels made a trade to get Skaggs back in 2013.
When Skaggs returned to the Angels, Trout said he was "excited. I liked Ty ... I liked hanging out with him." Skaggs had a "nasty" curve ball, Trout said. When asked by Angels attorney Bill Haggerty to explain that baseball term to some of the jurors unfamiliar with it, Trout said, "The movement on the pitch is basically unhittable."
Skaggs missed a year with surgery to his elbow, but got off to a good start in 2019 that Trout said would have put him in the conversation for the All-Star game.
Skaggs was a good teammate, Trout said.
"He was always making people laugh and he would pick you up."
The pitcher was known for carrying around his boom box, and liked being the clubhouse DJ, Trout said.
Skaggs and Trout enjoyed playing basketball against each other as well as going to dinner and watching football, he said. Trout also recalled feeling "star truck" when they met Lakers star Kobe Bryant after a game they attended.
Other than drinking alcohol and sometimes "smoking weed," Haggerty asked if Trout was aware of Skaggs taking any other drugs.
"No," Trout replied.
Plaintiffs' attorneys have said Skaggs shared pills with teammates Cam Bedrosian, C.J. Cron, Blake Parker, Mike Morin and Matt Harvey, but Trout said he was unaware of that.
Trout also recalled the "horseplay" the clubhouse engaged in to "loosen up" that involved team public relations official Eric Kay, who is serving a 22-year federal prison term for providing a fatal dose of fentanyl to Skaggs.
The 27-year-old pitcher was found dead in his hotel room July 1, 2019, while the team was in Texas on a road trip.
It was important for Kay to ingratiated himself to the players, "so that he could do his job ... Players like myself don't like doing (media) interviews," Trout said.
When asked if he was involved in some of the bets the team had regarding Kay, Trout smiled and said, "Yes, I'm not proud of it."
One of those antics included paying Kay to take a 90 mph fastball from a pitching machine off his leg. They also paid him to eat a bug off the clubhouse floor and shave his eyebrows.
"I was behind that," he chuckled.
Throwing a football at Kay's head with a helmet on was another one, Trout said.
Trout also said he wasn't aware of Kay arranging for prostitutes for players.
When a clubhouse attendant warned Trout about the horseplay, the star started to grow suspicious of Kay's drug issues. The clubhouse attendant said that the money players were giving Kay was "going to bad people," Trout said.
Trout said he confronted Kay and told him, "you've got two boys at home... You've gotta get this right."
Trout added that Kay often appeared "hyper, always had a Red Bull" in hand. Trout thought, "He was using something. I didn't know what it was."
Trout offered help to Kay.
"I said if you basically need anything let me know," Trout said.
From then on, Trout made sure any autographed merchandise went to its intended place, he said.
Skaggs seemed fine on the flight to Texas for the road trip, Trout said. The last time he saw him was on the team hotel elevator the day before he died with his customary boom box, he added.
The next day when Skaggs was found dead, the manager called a meeting to tell the team.
"I cried," Trout said. "I loved him."
Kay convinced Trout to do an interview with some other players, he said.
Haggerty also took Trout through memories of the July 12, 2019, game, the first one back at home that was a tribute to the memory of Skaggs.
When asked if he felt Skaggs' energy that evening, Trout said, "Oh yeah."
Skaggs' mother threw a "strike" for the first pitch and the team all wore Skaggs' number 45.
When Trout was first up to bat he saw a pitch he liked.
"I hit it over the fence," he said. Rounding the bases he said he felt "emotional" and that "Tyler was with me."
It was a combined no-hitter for the team and the players all took off their jerseys and in an impromptu tribute laid them on the mound after the game, he said.
When Trout heard how Skaggs died, he said, "I was upset, sad."
When he heard some of his teammates were using opioids he said he was "surprised."
Trout said he had no suspicion Kay was providing drugs to any players or that Skaggs had substance abuse issues.
It made no sense to Trout for players to try to use opioids to play through pain when the team's medical staff can provide anything an athlete needs legitimately, Trout said.
"Everything that you get form the medical staff is for that," Trout said of the ailments players deal with.
Trout said he "may have heard" about Kay getting Viagra for some players.
When asked about "getting weed" for some of the players, he said, "I don't know... maybe."
Traveling secretary Tom Taylor, who also testified Monday, resumed his testimony after Trout.
On July 18, 2019, Kay told a co-worker that he had been in the room with Skaggs the night before Skaggs died and that he saw Skaggs chopping up pills and snorting them, so the co-worker alerted Taylor, who called his bosses, Taylor testified Monday.
"I was immediately shocked," Taylor testified. "I'm still shocked actually."
Under questioning from Angels attorney Todd Theodora, Taylor said he never suspected Kay had a substance abuse problem or that he had been giving pills to Skaggs.
"It was like we need this escalated right now," he said of what he did when he heard the news.
Taylor called Kay's boss at the time, Tim Mead, who was in charge of team public relations.
"I felt he was going to give us the best advice on how to move forward," he said.
Taylor said he lost his father at a young age so Mead has become a father figure to him over the years. Taylor and Kay started working for the team together as interns about 30 years ago, he said.
Taylor testified about how he got rare time off for Easter, which was important to him and his family as a Catholic. So he was on his way home to celebrate the holiday when he saw Kay did not look well, he said.
Kay told him he had the flu so Taylor offered to give him a ride home, but Kay would only agree to let Taylor follow him home to make sure he got there OK.
Taylor parted ways with Kay near his home as Kay stopped at a drug store, but something made Taylor circle back to check on his friend, he said. When he got back to the drug store he saw Kay doing "karate chops" and acting bizarrely, so he convinced Kay to get in his car and drove him home, he said.
Kay's wife showed him a bottle of Advil with a few pills in it but he didn't take that as anything out of the ordinary, he said. Taylor testified that he took Kay "at his word" that when he had rare off days it was because of a mix-up with his medication for depression.
Taylor said Kay was a good and hard worker 99% of the time, but had off days.
Plaintiffs' attorneys are trying to make the case that Kay would show up to work high on opioids and that officials such as Mead ignored team policies and rules to cover for a valued employee.
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