Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs dies two days after last start
Skaggs, who was to turn 28 later this month, was found unconscious in his hotel room. Foul play is not suspected.
Tyler Skaggs, a 27-year-old lefthander for the Los Angeles Angels, was found dead in Texas on Monday, the team announced.
Monday night’s Angels-Rangers game was postponed and will be made up later in the season. The Angels arrived in Texas on Sunday for a three-game series.
The Southlake, Texas, police department released a statement saying that police responded to a call for an unconscious male at a hotel shortly before 2:30 p.m. central time.
The police department said foul play is not suspected and that Skaggs was pronounced dead at the scene.
In a statement, the Angels called Skaggs “an important part of the Angels family.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Carli and his entire family during this devastating time.”
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he was “deeply saddened by today’s tragedy in Texas” in a statement the league released.
“All of us at Major League Baseball extend our deepest condolences to Tyler’s wife Carli, their family, their friends and all of his Angels’ teammates and colleagues," Manfred said. "We will support the Angels’ organization through this most difficult period, and we will make a variety of resources available to Tyler’s teammates and other members of the baseball family.”
Skaggs, who was to turn 28 on July 13, started for the Angels on Saturday night against Oakland. The Southern California native was drafted by the Angels in 2009 and dealt to the Diamondbacks in August 2010.
While with Arizona, he made his major-league debut in August 2012. The next year, he was sent back to the Angels in a three-team trade.
Angels star Mike Trout didn’t speak to the media on Monday at the team hotel, but he did share his condolences on Twitter.
“Words cannot express the deep sadness we feel right now,” he wrote.
Trevor Bauer, an Indians pitcher who played with Skaggs in the Diamondbacks organization, tweeted: “We came up together. We won together. We laughed and celebrated together. Today, we all lose and mourn together.”
The last Angels player to die during the season was Nick Adenhart, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2009. He was a 22-year-old rookie and had just made his first major-league start.
Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez died in a boat crash near Miami in 2016 at the age of 24.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.