Wade Miley Tyler Skaggs cincinnati reds Angels drugs
Cincinnati Reds’ Wade Miley said he was ‘never accused of any wrongdoing’ in a brief statement on a report that he provided drugs to Tyler Skaggs.
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Wade Miley addressed the accusation that he supplied former teammate Tyler Skaggs – who died of an overdose in 2019 – with prescription drugs when they were teammates with the Arizona Diamondbacks, claiming he was “never a witness for any of this.”
“I hate what happened to Tyler,” Miley told reporters on June 13, a day after The Athletic reported that Miley’s name surfaced in new court filings. “It sucks. My thoughts are with his family and friends.
But I’m not going to sit here and talk about things that somebody might have said about me or whatnot.
“I was never a witness for any of this. I’ve never been accused of any wrongdoing.”
Miley’s name came up in depositions – including one that was supposed to remain confidential – with Miley’s former agent and Los Angeles Angels communications director Eric Kay in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Skaggs’ family against the Angels in June 2021. The Skaggs family is seeking $210 million in damages.
Miley, who was teammates with Skaggs in 2012 and 2013, refused to answer further questions about Skaggs and the report, maintaining that there was “no wrongdoing.”
Ryan Hamill, Skaggs’ former agent who is the co-head of the Creative Artists Agency, said in his deposition, reported by The Athletic, that he was concerned with Skaggs’ drug use in 2013 and informed his family.
“He came clean,” Hamill testified in his deposition. “He said he had been using – I believe it was Percocets – and he said he got them through Wade Miley.”
Miley’s name also came up in the criminal proceedings against Kay that resulted in a 22-year sentence. Kay informed his mother on a recorded prison phone call that Miley had been a drug source for Skaggs.
Miley, 38, has not been charged with any crime or at least formally accused of any wrongdoing.
The filings were from the Skaggs family’s attorneys as part of a motion for summary judgment as potential evidence to demonstrate that multiple Angels employees were aware of Kay’s drug use and that he was he was providing illegal drugs to Skaggs. It was part of the testimony, including portions of depositions from witnesses that were made public to the court’s online portal, and uncovered by The Athletic, instead of being kept under seal.
Skaggs’ medical records in the court documents revealed that Skaggs was ingesting five Percocet pills a day as of September 2013, beginning in 2012, when he was teammates with Miley. Skaggs was later was prescribed Suboxone, a medicine designed to treat opioid dependence.
Miley had the two finest two seasons of his 15-year career in 2012-2013 with the Diamondbacks, making the All-Star Game in 2012 and going 26-21 with a 3.44 ERA, pitching 397 ⅓ innings in 65 games. He since has pitched for seven more teams, signing a minor-league contract this spring with the Reds and called back up to the major leagues a week ago.
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