Chad Kuhl glad to be back pitching for White Sox after wife is declared cancer free
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chad Kuhl has proven to be a reliable relief pitcher, and sometimes even spot starter for the White Sox.
But any pressure he feels to perform on the mound is nothing compared to what he and his family went through in the past year.
Kuhl—who played previously for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, and Washington Nationals—is happy to back in the major leagues, pitching for the White Sox.
"Just amazing to be back," he said. "You know, I've had the game taken away from me from Tommy John surgery in 2019, so I know what it feels like to kind of miss the game—for different reasons last year—but it's just super special to be back."
Those different reasons for missing the game, started with Kuhl's wife, Amanda, going to the doctor for a routine visit in January of last year.
"She was going to her yearly appointment, and we were thinking about the opportunity for having baby number two, and the doctor found a lump—and a week later, it turned out to be breast cancer," Kuhl said. "So one of those things where, you know, we're at the highest of highs, we're thinking about growing our family, and we're getting super excited about it—and just kind of a gut punch."
As Kuhl, puts it, it was a tough time. His wife had to go through chemotherapy and radiation treatments leading to hair loss—something she embraced and shared with the world on social media.
"She handled that beautifully," Kuhl said. "You know, she handled chemo unbelievable, radiation, the whole deal—so she just made it super easy on everyone around us."
While this was going on, Kuhl wasn't pitching well in his first year with the Nationals. He would be released in late June 2023.
After that, Kuhl said he received offers from other teams, but he decided to stay home and put his baseball career on pause instead of pursuing those opportunities.
"I just felt like at the time it wasn't the right thing to do, you know, to leave her there with our then-2-year-old, going through chemo by herself. So I decided to stay, and kind of see out the rest of her chemo, the rest of her radiation, the rest of her treatment," Kuhl said, "and it turned out, I believe, it was the best thing for us—just, you know, as a family, just kind of getting through that together."
The very best thing happened just as the baseball season was ending. Amanda Kuhl was given the all-clear, that there was no evidence of the disease. That's when Chad Kuhl decided he was going to get back to pitching, eventually signing a minor league deal with the White Sox.
"I knew when I took a pause that it definitely wasn't the end," Kuhl said. "I knew I had a lot more baseball in me."
Now, Kuhl is back playing the game he loves at the highest level. His family is getting to enjoy it with him—and they're all just embracing life being a little less eventful.
"Back to boring. Back to our normal schedule—baseball every day—and back to kind of the routine of our normal lives," Kuhn said. "So it just felt great to be back in the swing of things, and not have to kind of always have that worry or fear in the back of your mind of kind of what's going on at home, or what's coming next—and just got back to life."
And having his wife and son being able to watch him pitch again – it just means everything.
"It's just amazing to have these guys here, whenever they can. No matter how long your career is, it's always finite, and there's an end to it someday," Kuhl said "It means the world if they can show up to any game and be here."
Kuhl threw three innings of one-hit ball in a shutout win over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday. It was his first start for the Sox.