{"id":683475,"date":"2026-04-26T17:54:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/683475\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T17:54:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:54:29","slug":"minnesota-twins-pitcher-kody-funderburk-faces-emotional-family-battle-as-wife-alicia-fights-cancer-while-pregnant-mlb-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/683475\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Twins pitcher Kody Funderburk faces emotional family battle as wife Alicia fights cancer while pregnant | MLB News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MinnesotaKody Funderburk (Image Via Getty) Minnesota Twins pitcher Kody Funderburk and his wife Alicia have shared an emotional story that turned their first pregnancy into a journey filled with fear, hope, and strength. What started as joyful news in September last year quickly became a serious medical challenge when Alicia was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma while pregnant with their first child. The Twins organization shared the update and explained that Alicia began chemotherapy treatments during her pregnancy. It was a frightening time for the family, but doctors remained hopeful because the cancer was found early. Despite the difficult months, the couple stayed focused on treatment, family, and preparing for their baby\u2019s arrival. Thankfully, the story brought happy news this week. Alicia and Kody welcomed a healthy baby girl, Murphy Jo, on April 20. The left-handed reliever later returned to the Twins bullpen after spending time on the paternity list, while the family celebrated their newborn daughter and Alicia\u2019s positive recovery outlook.<\/p>\n

Kody Funderburk says early cancer diagnosis gave his family hope during Alicia\u2019s pregnancy<\/p>\n

The Minnesota Twins shared Alicia\u2019s diagnosis in an official statement while welcoming Kody Funderburk back from the paternity list. The team wrote, \u201cFundy is back from the Paternity List, and we want to take a moment to share more of his and his wife\u2019s story. While pregnant, Alicia, Kody\u2019s wife, was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. After ongoing chemotherapy treatments, doctors are hopeful that she will make a full recovery.\u201dAlicia later shared her emotions on Instagram Stories after the birth of Murphy Jo. According to the New York Post, she wrote, \u201cWe have been on cloud 9 these last few days, enjoying so many newborn snuggles. Thank you to everyone for all the prayers and support. It means the world to us.\u201dIn another Instagram post before delivery, Alicia opened up more about the unexpected journey. She wrote, \u201cWhile this season of life has not looked how we imagined, Kody and I are beyond grateful for all the love, prayers and support around us. We have been constantly reminded of how blessed we are every step of the way.\u201dShe also added, \u201cBaby Fundy is already so loved and clearly already likes to keep things interesting. We cannot wait to meet them in a few days!\u201dSpeaking to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Kody explained that the pregnancy may have helped doctors find the illness earlier than expected. He said, \u201cWe caught it early enough. It was just more about, \u2018OK, what do we need to do?\u2019\u201dHe added, \u201cKind of like how baseball is, you kind of get to your process. \u2018OK, what is next?\u2019 \u2018OK, go execute that.\u2019 \u2018What is next?\u2019 \u2018OK, let us do that.\u2019\u201dNow, with baby Murphy Jo home and Alicia continuing recovery, the family has a reason to smile again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kody Funderburk (Image Via Getty) Minnesota Twins pitcher Kody Funderburk and his wife Alicia have shared an emotional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[86465,86468,5,86466,86467,38195,7666,822,60,3190,4,85459,148],"class_list":["post-683475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-twins","tag-alicia-funderburk","tag-baby-murphy-jo","tag-baseball","tag-cancer-treatment-during-pregnancy","tag-emotional-family-story","tag-hodgkin-lymphoma","tag-kody-funderburk","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minnesotatwins","tag-mlb","tag-pregnancy","tag-twins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116472294798486390","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}