I came home today and my wife had the TV on MLB Network (which is nothing new because she is almost as big of a baseball fan as I am). The first words out of her mouth to me were, "Tyler Skaggs passed away." When she told me, I was stunned. There was no way someone, who was as young as Skaggs, could have passed away. Sadly, the news was true.
Tyler Skaggs was found unconscious in a Hilton hotel room in Southlake, Texas at 2:18 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene. The Southlake Police Department does not immediately suspect foul play or suicide as the cause of death. They did say there would be an autopsy conducted on Tuesday.
Skaggs lived every man's baseball dream. He grew up in Santa Monica as a fan of the then California Angels. In 2009, the team he was a fan of, the Los Angeles Angels drafted him with the 40th pick of the first round. Unfortunately, he didn't stay around long.
In July of 2010 he was traded along with Patrick Corbin to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Dan Haren. Skaggs worked his way up the Diamondbacks organization. He started the MLB All-Star Futures Game at Chase Field in Phoenix, the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. By June of 2012, Skaggs had worked his way up to Triple A, and on August 22, 2012 he made his Major League debut.
At the start of the 2013 season, he had been named the Diamondbacks top prospect, according to Baseball America. Skaggs made seven starts for Arizona that season going 2-3 with a 5.12 ERA. In the offseason, something happened that no one saw coming.
In December of 2013, there was a three team trade involving the Angels, the Diamondbacks and the Chicago White Sox. In this trade, the Angels (in a move that hardly ever happens in Major League Baseball) reacquired Tyler Skaggs. He was going home.
The 2014 season for Skaggs was filled with ups and downs. At the end of July, he was 5-5, with a 4.30 ERA. On July 31, he was pitching in a game at Baltimore, when the very definition of baseball cruelty happened.
It was in the fifth inning of the game. Skaggs has thrown 4 2/3 innings with 7 strikeouts, two walks and no hits. He was throwing his first career no hitter. He was finally showing the talent that made the Angels draft him in the first round of 2009. “You’re thinking it’s turning into something special,” Skaggs said, “and then all of a sudden you throw one pitch and you can’t feel your hand.” He threw a changeup to Delmon Young of the Orioles, and tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
It was originally diagnosed as a strained flexor tendon in his forearm, but further tests showed it was a high grade partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament. Instead of trying to rehab the injury and let it heal on it's own, Skaggs chose to have Tommy John surgery. He would miss the rest of the 2014 season and the entire 2015 season.
He returned to pitch in 10 games in 2016. In 2017 he missed three months with an oblique muscle strain. In 2018 he posted career highs in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts. This season, he was on his way to setting career highs in every category.
I have a creative writing blog page, where I write results for a text-based wrestling video game I play. When the legendary wrestlers from my childhood have passed away, I have written about it on that page. It was easier to write about their passing, than someone who was just coming into the prime of his playing career.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Skaggs' friends and family, as well as the Angels organization. He was 27 years old.
