(Blum):Testimony at Skaggs trial reveals Eric Kay’s termination from Angels was ‘voluntary’
October 24, 2025
(Blum):Testimony at Skaggs trial reveals Eric Kay’s termination from Angels was ‘voluntary’
11 comments
“It was also revealed through Skaggs family attorney Leah Graham’s questioning of Castro that Kay was placed on a leave of absence July 18, 2019 — when he was first reported to Angels officials — and not suspended. He admitted to a coworker that day that he was in the room with Skaggs the night he died.
That leave of absence turned into a suspension on Oct. 15, 2019, according to Castro, who was reading Kay’s employee file. According to Skaggs attorneys during court proceedings from September, Kay was being paid while on leave from July until his suspension began three months later. His “voluntary termination,” as Castro confirmed, took place about two weeks later.
Graham pressed Castro on whether the Angels followed the policies of their employee manual, as well as alleged inconsistencies in enforcing those policies. Graham also asked about text message evidence that Castro admitted to deleting.
Castro took long pauses to answer certain questions. Graham asked if the Angels’ employee manual “contains rules that are supposed to govern all those employees.” **“I don’t believe that they are rules,” she responded. “I believe that they’re guidelines.”**
Graham continued to press Castro on the distinction, wondering if the policies are considered optional, to which Castro said no. “These are policies that we want employees to follow,” she said.
Neither the Skaggs side nor the Angels contended that Castro knew Kay well or worked with him closely. Castro testified that her interactions were mainly limited to internship recruitment, and spell-checking the annual media guide.
However, her importance to Skaggs family attorneys centered on her knowledge of the company’s rules, and how they should be interpreted and enforced. Castro wouldn’t definitively state that being impaired at work, or being asleep at work, would impact an employee’s ability to do their job well.
“I think it would depend,” Castro said, which created a long back-and-forth in which Castro never conceded that impairment at work would definitely impact an employee’s job performance.
Graham asked Castro about an incident of alleged impairment involving an employee who was not Kay, and the strict and swift action that Angels HR took to investigate and punish that employee.
**In that instance, a 63-year-old longtime custodial worker was fired for drinking a White Claw, a hard seltzer, on her break. The worker told HR that her husband packed the drink, and that she was unaware it had alcohol. She also showed no signs of impairment, Castro acknowledged.** Castro said the Angels found her story credible, but the decision came from above Castro to fire her.
Lmao Angels fired an employee for drinking White Claw on the job but kept Kay despite being hospitalized for prescription drug abuse. Sounds like some employees are clearly favored over others with respect to company rules.
Not only will Arte not be selling the team, he will be promoted to overseeing HR policy for all 30 teams. MLB will save millions with skeleton crews running each club’s day-to-day operations.
Arte just sell
I’m really starting to think Arte will have no choice but to sell the team after this. Especially with the half ass press conference introducing the new manager.
Do you guys think Arte was involved in the NBA stuff or had friends in the FBI to make the NBA gambling way bigger than this?
Either way Arte sell the fucking team. You don’t know how to run an organization. You don’t know how to treat people equally and you didn’t even know about a broken AC in the weight room. Like fuck out of here.
The Angels, basically.
Hey Arte, sell the fucking team, the entire organization is dysfunctional from the top down. This goes beyond the baseball side of things, your entire organization is a complete mess. A complete lack of leadership which should start from the top, which means you.
Just more examples of this clusterfuck of a dogshit organization that Arte has run into the ground.
Anyone else still think the Angels will get a defense verdict on this? Angels best move would have been to settle pre trial rather then expose any other skeletons in the closet. OC is a conservative venue but I wouldn’t be surprised if this goes nuclear against the Angels.
While this is a terribly tragic incident, Tyler Skaggs was a grown man and should have known better.
But the Angels organization has handled this terribly. The team should have settled with the Skaggs family and turned the page, but no, Arte has to keep us in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
11 comments
“It was also revealed through Skaggs family attorney Leah Graham’s questioning of Castro that Kay was placed on a leave of absence July 18, 2019 — when he was first reported to Angels officials — and not suspended. He admitted to a coworker that day that he was in the room with Skaggs the night he died.
That leave of absence turned into a suspension on Oct. 15, 2019, according to Castro, who was reading Kay’s employee file. According to Skaggs attorneys during court proceedings from September, Kay was being paid while on leave from July until his suspension began three months later. His “voluntary termination,” as Castro confirmed, took place about two weeks later.
Graham pressed Castro on whether the Angels followed the policies of their employee manual, as well as alleged inconsistencies in enforcing those policies. Graham also asked about text message evidence that Castro admitted to deleting.
Castro took long pauses to answer certain questions. Graham asked if the Angels’ employee manual “contains rules that are supposed to govern all those employees.” **“I don’t believe that they are rules,” she responded. “I believe that they’re guidelines.”**
Graham continued to press Castro on the distinction, wondering if the policies are considered optional, to which Castro said no. “These are policies that we want employees to follow,” she said.
Neither the Skaggs side nor the Angels contended that Castro knew Kay well or worked with him closely. Castro testified that her interactions were mainly limited to internship recruitment, and spell-checking the annual media guide.
However, her importance to Skaggs family attorneys centered on her knowledge of the company’s rules, and how they should be interpreted and enforced. Castro wouldn’t definitively state that being impaired at work, or being asleep at work, would impact an employee’s ability to do their job well.
“I think it would depend,” Castro said, which created a long back-and-forth in which Castro never conceded that impairment at work would definitely impact an employee’s job performance.
Graham asked Castro about an incident of alleged impairment involving an employee who was not Kay, and the strict and swift action that Angels HR took to investigate and punish that employee.
**In that instance, a 63-year-old longtime custodial worker was fired for drinking a White Claw, a hard seltzer, on her break. The worker told HR that her husband packed the drink, and that she was unaware it had alcohol. She also showed no signs of impairment, Castro acknowledged.** Castro said the Angels found her story credible, but the decision came from above Castro to fire her.
Lmao Angels fired an employee for drinking White Claw on the job but kept Kay despite being hospitalized for prescription drug abuse. Sounds like some employees are clearly favored over others with respect to company rules.
Not only will Arte not be selling the team, he will be promoted to overseeing HR policy for all 30 teams. MLB will save millions with skeleton crews running each club’s day-to-day operations.
Arte just sell
I’m really starting to think Arte will have no choice but to sell the team after this. Especially with the half ass press conference introducing the new manager.
Do you guys think Arte was involved in the NBA stuff or had friends in the FBI to make the NBA gambling way bigger than this?
Either way Arte sell the fucking team. You don’t know how to run an organization. You don’t know how to treat people equally and you didn’t even know about a broken AC in the weight room. Like fuck out of here.
The Angels, basically.
Hey Arte, sell the fucking team, the entire organization is dysfunctional from the top down. This goes beyond the baseball side of things, your entire organization is a complete mess. A complete lack of leadership which should start from the top, which means you.
Just more examples of this clusterfuck of a dogshit organization that Arte has run into the ground.
Anyone else still think the Angels will get a defense verdict on this? Angels best move would have been to settle pre trial rather then expose any other skeletons in the closet. OC is a conservative venue but I wouldn’t be surprised if this goes nuclear against the Angels.
While this is a terribly tragic incident, Tyler Skaggs was a grown man and should have known better.
But the Angels organization has handled this terribly. The team should have settled with the Skaggs family and turned the page, but no, Arte has to keep us in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
I thought Arte was a marketing guy? What a moron.
#SellTheTeamArte