Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs died with opioids, alcohol in system, coroner says

On July 1, a rising Major League Baseball star and starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, Tyler Skaggs, was found dead in a Texas hotel room.

The autopsy report, released on Friday, revealed that the 27-year-old athlete choked to death while accidentally intoxicated with powerful narcotics mixed with alcohol.

Accidental overdose

Skaggs, a starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, was discovered unresponsive by police and pronounced dead at the scene on July 1 in a hotel room in Southlake, Texas, a suburb on the north side of the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area.

Now, according to the Orange County Register, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Skaggs passed away because of “mixed ethanol, fentanyl and oxycodone intoxication with terminal aspiration of gastric contents.”

Skaggs, a California native, was drafted by the Angels in 2009 before being traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010 to make his major league debut.

Skaggs returned to the Angels in 2013 and had just signed a new $3.7 million contract prior to the start of the 2019 season. He married wife Carli at the end of the 2018 season.

Possible involvement of team employee?

In a statement released after the autopsy report came out, Skagg’s family expressed their grief at the loss. They also implied that somebody within the Angels organization was involved in the death, though the family declined to provide any further details or elaborate on their suspicions.

“We are heartbroken to learn that the passing of our beloved Tyler was the result of a combination of dangerous drugs and alcohol. That is completely out of character for someone who worked so hard to become a Major League baseball player and had a very promising future in the game he loved so much,” the family said in the statement.

“We will not rest until we learn the truth about how Tyler came into possession of these narcotics, including who supplied them,” the family added. “To that end, we have hired Texas attorney Rusty Hardin to assist us.”

Hardin, an attorney who has represented other famous athletes and MLB players like Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens, shared the family’s concerns in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times.

“I think the thing to keep in mind is they’re just still so devastated, both the wife and the family, about this young man’s death, and they just want to know what happened and how it happened,” the attorney said. “We’re going to want to know how it came about that those drugs were ingested and whether or not others are responsible for what happened.”

The Times noted that the MLB and the police are investigating the allegation put forward by Skaggs’ family. As for the Angels, the organization is still mourning the loss of a popular player and is said to have been cooperative with local and state authorities in Texas.