Pirates' Travis Swaggerty details the emotional rollercoaster in supporting his wife Peyton's fight against rare blood disease

Life has been challenging for Travis Swaggerty. Swaggerty's wife, Peyton, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer shortly after the Pirates selected the left-handed hitter 10th overall in the 2018 MLB Draft. She eventually made a full recovery. Swaggerty underwent season-ending surgery in 2021 after dislocating his right shoulder while playing for Indianapolis at the Triple-A level.

Sutton Hollie, the family's first child, was born six weeks early. Although she was technically born prematurely, the 1-year-old is now healthy. Meanwhile, Peyton has been receiving periodic testing at the Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic since the beginning of the month.

Travis tweeted on May 31 that Peyton had been diagnosed with "an extremely rare, painful blood disease" after being attacked by a rabid raccoon more than a year earlier.

Travis Swaggerty said, “She gets picked and poked and prodded at, and that makes it hurt worse. But she’s focused on being a mom. She's super resilient, and there’s nothing else I can really say. She's been a trooper throughout the whole thing. It's been really tough on her."

Swaggerty is aware that neither his profession as a baseball player nor the illnesses he and Peyton have experienced are typical. Kudos to Swaggerty for talking openly about a period that has been more than complex for his family.

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Travis Swaggerty's migraine is not letting him rest

Since November, Swaggerty has been suffering from migraines. He spent six weeks of the minor league season on the injured list due to severe migraines. Since May 23, he has started playing with Indianapolis again, although he undoubtedly has much on his mind besides the game.

Travis Swaggerty, an MLB player

Swaggerty says the flu vaccination he received last fall was the cause of the migraines, though he can't say for sure. Even so, he had his best spring training performance recently with the Pirates, with a slash line of .379/.471/.690 with three home runs in 29 at-bats.

“It's hard enough to play baseball and it's stressful enough at this level to try to get back to the big leagues,” said Swaggerty.

Swaggerty continued to experience migraines, but they no longer occurred during the day. Instead, they typically occur at night, which was convenient during spring training but not now.