Cincinnati Reds pitcher Wade Miley has denied any wrongdoing after a recent report suggested he supplied Tyler Skaggs with drugs when they were teammates with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Skaggs died on July 1, 2019, in a Dallas-area hotel due to an overdose of fentanyl and oxycodone.
The report arose on Thursday when The Athletic cited a deposition that is part of a motion for summary judgment filed by the Los Angeles Angels requesting a Skaggs family lawsuit be dismissed.
The deposition included testimony from Ryan Hamill, Skaggs’ agent, claiming he became concerned with the pitcher’s drug use in 2013 and that Skaggs “came clean” following an intervention with his family.
“He said he had been using — I believe it was Percocets — and he said he got them through Wade Miley,” Hamill testified.
Before a game against the Detroit Tigers on Friday night, Miley addressed the report.
“I hate what happened to Tyler, it sucks. My thoughts are with his family and his friends,” Miley said, via ESPN. “But I’m not going to sit here and talk about things that someone might have said about me or whatnot. I was never a witness for any of this. I was never accused of any wrongdoing.”
Former Angels communications director Eric Kay was found guilty on two counts related to providing Skaggs drugs that led to his death and is serving a 22-year prison sentence.
The criminal proceedings against Kay included a phone call with his mother in which he said Miley was a drug source for Skaggs.
Although Miley was mentioned, he was never charged with a crime.
“I’d rather just focus on the Cincinnati Reds right now and baseball and what I have to do moving forward,” Miley said when asked if he had been contacted by Major League Baseball.
The 38-year-old Miley is in his 15th season after returning from Tommy John Surgery in 2024.
