About Tyler Skaggs
Tyler Wayne Skaggs (July 13, 1991 – July 1, 2019) was an American professional baseball player. A starting pitcher, he played seven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Angels between 2012 and 2019. A native of Woodland Hills, California, and a graduate of Santa Monica High School, Skaggs was a supplemental first-round selection for the Angels in the 2009 Major League Baseball draft. He was traded to the Diamondbacks the following year as part of an exchange for pitcher Dan Haren and rose through Arizona's farm system. After two consecutive appearances at the All-Star Futures Game in 2011 and 2012, Skaggs made his major league debut on August 22, 2012, against the Miami Marlins. He remained with the Diamondbacks through the end of the season, but was optioned to the minor leagues in 2013. In December 2013, the Diamondbacks traded Skaggs back to the Angels, and he served as the fifth member of the team's starting pitching rotation until an ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) injury and subsequent Tommy John surgery derailed his season on July 31, 2014. Despite his initial plans to begin pitching in the minor leagues by the end of the 2015 season, Skaggs did not start practicing again until the beginning of the 2016 season and returned to the Angels mound that July. Although he figured prominently in the Angels' rotation between 2017 and 2019, Skaggs continued missing large parts of each season because of injury. Through June 2019, he posted a career earned run average (ERA) of 4.41, recorded 476 strikeouts, and had a win–loss record of 28–38. On July 1, 2019, Skaggs was found unresponsive in his hotel room in Southlake, Texas, where the Angels had been visiting for a series against the Texas Rangers. He was pronounced dead the same day. An autopsy concluded at the end of August that Skaggs had accidentally died of asphyxia after aspirating his own vomit while under the influence of fentanyl, oxycodone, and alcohol. That October, former Angels director of communications Eric Kay was indicted on charges relating to Skaggs's death when he admitted to providing opiates to various members of the Angels, including Skaggs. Kay was convicted on two counts relating to Skaggs's death in February 2022. The Angels wore a No. 45 patch on their jerseys for the rest of the 2019 season in memory of Skaggs, while his widow and mother set up a charitable foundation in his name. There, he posted a 1–1 record and a 1.69 ERA in four starts and sixteen total innings. Skaggs pitched in 19 games for the Kernels that year, starting 14, and posted a 8–4 win–loss record with a 3.61 ERA during that time.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.