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Pirates' Travis Swaggerty Says His Wife Has 'Extremely Rare' Blood Disease After Attack from Rabid Raccoon

Peyton Swaggerty is being treated at the Mayo Clinic for complications she suffered from the bite, her husband said

<p>Travis Swaggerty/Instagram</p>

Travis Swaggerty/Instagram

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Travis Swaggerty says that his wife is suffering from an “extremely rare” blood disease after being attacked by a rabid raccoon over a year ago.

In a post on Twitter Tuesday, the 25-year-old athlete said that his wife Peyton Swaggerty will seek medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota after enduring complications from the bite, in which “a lot of guesses and medicines have been thrown at her.”

“She’s now been diagnosed with an extremely rare, painful blood disease that has completely taken over her body,” Swaggerty wrote. “It has riddled her with unresolved pain and problems and completely taken her quality of life away from her.”

Travis asked his followers to support and pray for his wife of two-and-a-half years, with whom he shares 20-month-old daughter Sutton Hollie.

“I wanted to share this to ask for support and prayers for her, along with reminding everyone to not take anything for granted in this life, especially the little things,” he wrote.

The rising MLB star, who was promoted to the Pirates from the minors last June, has been vocal about his love for his family — and has spoken in the past about how they’ve helped him accomplish his baseball dreams.

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“I’ve been talking about getting here and providing for my family for years,” he told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review last year about his debut in the majors. “Now that I’m here, I can’t believe this is happening.”

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He added, “Even in college — my wife went to South Alabama with me for my junior year — she would want to hang out, and I’d be like, ‘I’ve got to go hit.’ She would be like, ‘Do you have to hit tonight?’ I would say, ‘Listen, I’m going to hit so I can provide for our future family.’”

<p>Mike Janes/Four Seam Images via AP</p>

Mike Janes/Four Seam Images via AP

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Travis’ journey in the big leagues has not been without other “trials and tribulations,” he told the paper.

Peyton previously endured a bout with thyroid cancer early in his pro career (but is now cancer-free), and Sutton Hollie was born six weeks premature in September 2021.

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After his wife was bitten by the raccoon, an infection landed Peyton in the hospital, where Travis was able to visit her every day, due to the baseball lockout at the start of the 2022 season.

"It gave me perspective that life is bigger than baseball,” Swaggerty said. “Those two people are more important to me than anything else in the world. For me to be able to provide for them by doing this, this is why I work so hard — for those two.”

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