Cody Ponce is married to Emma Kittle Ponce, the older sister of San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle. The couple tied the knot on June 2, 2023, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and welcomed their first child, a daughter nicknamed “Baby Roo,” in the fall of 2025 while living in South Korea during Ponce’s historic KBO season.
Emma grew up in the same Iowa household that produced one of the NFL’s most popular tight ends. Cody worked through MLB’s minor leagues, Japan’s NPB, and South Korea’s KBO before signing a $30 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays in December 2025. Together they have lived in Japan, South Korea, and now Toronto within three years.
Who Is Emma Kittle Ponce?
Emma Kittle Ponce is a former NCAA Division I volleyball player, certified yoga instructor, and content creator with over 41,000 Instagram followers. She played volleyball at the University of Iowa before transferring to the University of Oklahoma, following a high school career that earned her Iowa City Press-Citizen Female Athlete of the Year honors in 2009.
After her playing days, Emma shifted into wellness and athlete recovery. She runs Thunderbird Performance alongside her father, Bruce Kittle, a program focused on mobility and athletic wellness. The elder Kittle spent decades coaching at the collegiate level, and that athletic household shaped both Emma and her younger brother George.
Emma also co-hosts a podcast with George and Bruce. She maintains an active presence on social media, posting videos from her South Korea maternity shoot through spring training in Florida. Her YouTube channel, “Emma Kittle Ponce,” has become a window into what daily life actually looks like for a baseball family moving internationally every season.
| Detail | Emma Kittle Ponce |
|---|---|
| Maiden Name | Emma Kittle |
| College | University of Iowa / University of Oklahoma |
| College Sport | NCAA Division I Volleyball |
| Career | Yoga Instructor, Wellness Entrepreneur (Thunderbird Performance) |
| Brother | George Kittle (San Francisco 49ers TE) |
| @emmakittleponce (~41K followers) | |
| YouTube | Emma Kittle Ponce |
The George Kittle Connection
Emma is George Kittle’s older sister, making Cody Ponce and the four-time Pro Bowl tight end brothers-in-law. George has never been shy about the relationship. He posted Instagram photos from Emma’s 2023 wedding with the caption “Happy days!! My Seester got married! An incredible weekend in Santa Fe,” according to Sportskeeda reporting from June 2023.
The family connection produced a viral moment on March 30, 2026. George, along with his wife Claire, attended Cody’s Blue Jays season opener at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Multiple fans and sports reporters on X noted George cheering from the stands, connecting the dots between the NFL star and the Blue Jays pitcher. Sports Illustrated confirmed that Emma had posted a supportive Blue Jays message shortly before the game.
That game ended in heartbreak. Cody suffered a right ACL sprain while fielding a ground ball in the third inning and was carted off the field. His entire family, including Emma, George, and Claire, watched it happen in real time.
Wedding in Santa Fe and Their Love Story
Emma Kittle and Cody Ponce married on June 2, 2023, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At the time, Cody was pitching for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan’s NPB, meaning the wedding fell during a brief window in his international playing schedule.
George Kittle and his wife Claire attended, along with other members of the Kittle and Ponce families. George’s social media posts from that weekend showed the siblings celebrating together. Santa Fe put both families roughly halfway between their home bases.
Neither has publicly discussed how they met. By June 2023, they had committed to following Cody’s career wherever it led. Within months of the wedding, Cody signed with the Hanwha Eagles in South Korea’s KBO League, and Emma followed him overseas.
Life in South Korea During the KBO Season
Emma relocated to South Korea with Cody for the 2025 KBO season, a move that coincided with her pregnancy. Their daughter, nicknamed “Baby Roo,” was born in the fall of 2025 while the family was still based in Korea. Emma’s mother flew to South Korea to help with the birth and early weeks of parenthood, according to Toronto Star reporting via PressReader.
Cody’s numbers in 2025 were staggering. He posted a 17-1 record with a 1.89 ERA and 252 strikeouts for the Hanwha Eagles, setting a new KBO single-season strikeout record and winning the league’s MVP award. Yonhap News Agency reported that Ponce received 96 out of 125 media votes for MVP, making him the first Hanwha Eagles player to earn the honor since Ryu Hyun-jin in 2006.
Emma shared portions of that South Korea experience on her YouTube channel, including a maternity photo shoot she filmed because her mother was 6,000 miles away and could not take the pictures herself. The videos show the unglamorous side of professional baseball life overseas: learning to read Korean hospital paperwork, managing time zone differences for family calls, and adjusting to daily routines in Daejeon without a local support system.
| League | Years | Team | Record | ERA | Strikeouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | 2020-2021 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 1-7 | 5.86 | 48 |
| NPB (Japan) | 2022-2023 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | — | 3.35 (2022) | — |
| KBO (South Korea) | 2025 | Hanwha Eagles | 17-1 | 1.89 | 252 (record) |
| MLB | 2026 | Toronto Blue Jays | — | — | 3 (before injury) |
The Contract Manifestation Story
One of the more unusual details surrounding the Ponce family involves what Cody has publicly called Emma’s “manifestation” of his Blue Jays contract. In an Instagram reel posted in late 2025, Cody described how Emma had essentially predicted the terms of his deal months before it materialized.
“My wife just manifested this entire contract from June until the end of November, and things fell into place for us,” Ponce said in the video, referencing the period between mid-season 2025 and the December signing. According to Ponce, Emma wrote down specific contract details, including the team and dollar figures, well before any formal negotiations took place.
On December 10, 2025, Cody signed a three-year, $30 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, the largest contract ever awarded to a pitcher returning to MLB from the KBO League. Ponce has said Emma wrote down similar figures months earlier; he credits her with manifesting the deal.
Who Is Cody Ponce?
Cody Joe Ponce was born on April 25, 1994, in Pomona, California. He grew up in Upland, California, attended Damien High School in La Verne, and played college baseball at Cal Poly Pomona. The Milwaukee Brewers selected him in the second round of the 2015 MLB Draft (55th overall), and he spent four years in their minor league system before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in July 2019 in exchange for pitcher Jordan Lyles.
Ponce made his MLB debut on August 2, 2020, against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. He wore custom cleats with his mother Jennifer’s name on the left shoe and a grey ribbon for brain cancer awareness on the right. Jennifer Ponce had died on December 1, 2017, after a battle with Stage 4 brain cancer. Cody has described her death as the defining moment that refocused his approach to baseball and life.
His two seasons with the Pirates produced a 1-7 record and a 5.86 ERA across 55.1 innings. Pittsburgh released him after the 2021 season. Ponce signed with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2022, then joined the Hanwha Eagles in 2025. He is of Mexican descent and has two sisters named Devan and Jess.
The ACL Injury That Changed Everything
On March 30, 2026, Cody Ponce took the mound for the Toronto Blue Jays’ season opener against the Colorado Rockies at Rogers Centre. It was his first MLB appearance since 2021, nearly five years after being released by Pittsburgh. Emma, George Kittle, and Claire Kittle were all in the stands.
Ponce pitched 2 and 1/3 innings, allowing one hit and one run with three strikeouts. Then, while fielding a ground ball hit by Rockies outfielder Jake McCarthy in the third inning, his right knee buckled. No contact. No collision. He just went down. The ESPN broadcast captured the moment Ponce was carted off the field, visibly emotional.
On March 31, 2026, the Blue Jays announced Ponce had suffered a sprained right ACL. Doctors are still reviewing the MRI to determine whether the ligament is partially or fully torn. The team placed him on the 15-day injured list and recalled pitcher Lazaro Estrada from Triple-A Buffalo.
“To work back from Korea/Japan to have this happen, just f***ing brutal.”
— r/baseball, March 2026 (694 upvotes)
The comment drew 694 upvotes and dozens of replies expressing the same frustration. Ponce had spent five years pitching in Asia, posted the best numbers of his career, and signed a $30 million deal. His knee gave out in the third inning of his comeback.
Emma as a Content Creator and Baseball Wife
Emma Kittle Ponce has turned her experience as a baseball wife and new mother into a growing YouTube channel. Her videos cover spring training, apartment moves, and first-time parenting in Toronto. The channel shows what it actually costs — in time, patience, and logistics — to move a family across borders multiple times per year for baseball.
Her maternity photo vlog from South Korea, posted in late 2025, showed the creative problem-solving required when your ideal maternity photographer is your mother and she is 6,000 miles away. The birth vlog for “Baby Roo,” published in January 2026, documented the experience of welcoming a newborn in a foreign country with limited family support nearby.
Her vlogs include visa paperwork, language barriers, and uncertain roster status — topics most athlete partners skip. She filmed a vlog about reading Korean hospital forms during her pregnancy, a detail that says more about expat baseball life than any highlight reel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Cody Ponce’s wife?
Cody Ponce’s wife is Emma Kittle Ponce, formerly Emma Kittle. She is the older sister of San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle. Emma is a former NCAA Division I volleyball player, certified yoga instructor, and runs Thunderbird Performance, an athlete wellness program, alongside her father Bruce Kittle.
When did Cody Ponce and Emma Kittle get married?
Cody and Emma married on June 2, 2023, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. George Kittle and his wife Claire attended the ceremony. At the time, Cody was playing professional baseball in Japan for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Does Cody Ponce have children?
Cody and Emma have one child, a daughter nicknamed “Baby Roo,” born in the fall of 2025 while the couple was living in South Korea during Cody’s KBO season with the Hanwha Eagles. Emma’s mother traveled to South Korea to assist with the birth.
Is Emma Kittle related to George Kittle?
Emma Kittle is George Kittle’s older sister. Their father, Bruce Kittle, has a background in collegiate coaching, and both siblings grew up in an athletic household in Iowa. George has publicly celebrated his relationship with Emma and brother-in-law Cody Ponce on social media.
What happened to Cody Ponce in his Blue Jays debut?
On March 30, 2026, Cody Ponce suffered a right ACL sprain during the Blue Jays’ season opener against the Colorado Rockies. He was carted off the field in the third inning after his knee buckled while fielding a ground ball. The Blue Jays confirmed the sprain on March 31 and placed him on the 15-day injured list. As of March 31, Blue Jays team doctors had not released a surgery timeline.
How much is Cody Ponce’s Blue Jays contract worth?
Cody Ponce signed a three-year, $30 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays in December 2025. The deal includes a $3 million signing bonus and averages $10 million per season through 2028. It was the largest contract ever given to a pitcher returning to MLB from the KBO League.
What did Cody Ponce accomplish in the KBO?
In 2025, Cody Ponce posted a 17-1 record with a 1.89 ERA and 252 strikeouts for the Hanwha Eagles, setting a new KBO single-season strikeout record. He won the league’s MVP award with 96 out of 125 media votes, the first Hanwha player to win MVP since Ryu Hyun-jin in 2006. He also swept the pitching Triple Crown (wins, ERA, strikeouts) and set a single-game strikeout record of 18.
