A former teammate of Tyler Skaggs testified Wednesday that the pitcher did not appear to have any substance abuse issues prior to his fentanyl overdose in a Texas hotel room while the team was on a road trip.
Ty Buttrey testified in the wrongful death civil suit trial against the Angels, followed by Skaggs’ father, Darrell Skaggs, who had to give his testimony remotely from his hospice care bed.
The lawsuit filed by Skaggs’ widow, Carli Skaggs, and his mother, Debbie Hetman, and father, alleges that the team was aware of the substance abuse issues of public relations executive Eric Kay, who was convicted in federal court of providing the fatal dose of fentanyl to Skaggs, and did nothing about it so they could cover for a valued employee.
Angels attorneys have been trying to make the case that Skaggs had his own substance abuse issues and that the night he died he had been drinking heavily and also had oxycodone in his system.
Buttrey, who joined the Angels in 2018 at the trade deadline from the Boston Red Sox, said he made an effort in the 2019 season to become friends with Skaggs.
“I respected him a lot,” Buttrey said.
Buttrey also said it was “important” for relievers to build a rapport with starters. Buttrey said many players on the team would build a rapport by playing a phone app game together that was like chess.
“Shohei (Ohtani) was the best, I was the most competitive and Tyler thought he was the best, but he wasn’t,” he said with a chuckle.
The attorneys clashed multiple times about what Buttrey could say in his testimony about his personal connections to drug addictions, but it came out that he was dealing with the death of his brother-in-law right before Skaggs died.
So when Buttrey said he had heard that the team’s attorneys were making the case that Skaggs was a drug addict, “I took offense to that.”
Skaggs “used drugs, but that didn’t make him a drug addict,” Buttrey said.
The relief pitcher said he never noticed that Skaggs appeared to be slipping in his performances on the field. He also noted that Skaggs never went to drug rehab.
“It would hinder his performance,” Buttrey said of drug abuse. “He wouldn’t be as consistent as a starter.”
Buttrey even demonstrated a pitching throw for the jury, explaining how the entire body is used to hurl a baseball. He said Skaggs had a “smooth delivery.”
Skaggs would have been in line for a big payday when he hit free agency because left handers are more valued, Buttrey said.
The team dressed as cowboys for the July 2019 Texas road trip, and after the flight when they were on the team bus Skaggs was “speaking coherently” and did not appear intoxicated, Buttrey said.
“Nothing seemed out of the ordinary,” Buttrey said.
Buttrey recalled how the team was roused from their sleep with the news trickling out about Skaggs’ overdose.
“I was just extremely shocked and stunned,” Buttrrey said. “I was extremely confused.”
His first thoughts were “We lost a great a human being,” he said.
Buttrey said his wife is close to Carli Skaggs and that he was also becoming a closer friend to her. He acknowledged meeting with the plaintiffs’ attorneys on Tuesday, but noted he paid for his own plane ticket to Santa Ana.
Buttrey’s three-season major league career, all with the Angels, ended in 2020.
Darrell Skaggs testified about how his son had an issue with Percocet in 2013, but overcome it on his own. Tyler Skaggs had Tommy John surgery on his elbow in 2014 and lost about a season and a half recovering.