Back
These MLB players certainly aren’t striking out.
On Oct. 23, the Milwaukee Brewers will take on the Tampa Bay Rays in the first game of the 2026 World Series. But off the field, several baseball players have been linked to high-profile celebrities.
Some of these home runs in love have included three-time World Series champion Kiké Hernández taking a swing in the DMs of Miss Universe Puerto Rico Mariana Vicente Hernández. Meanwhile, High School Musical actress Vanessa Hudgens slid into the DMs of former MLB shortstop Cole Tucker.
Baseball also has some superstar athlete couples, including Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes and former gymnast Livvy Dunne, plus 10-time All Star Justin Verlander and four-time Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover girl Kate Upton.
Here’s everything to know about eight MLB players who are dating or married to celebrities.
01 of 08
Recently retired two-time World Series champion Verlander and inaugural 2014 PEOPLE Sexiest Woman of the Year winner Upton are one of the highest profile celebrity baseball couples.
They first met while filming a commercial for the video game MLB 2K12 in 2013. In 2016, Verlander quietly proposed to the model and they wed one year later in Tuscany, Italy, just days after he won the World Series with the Houston Astros.
“It was a very special moment. It was pretty storybook. The moment the gates opened and I saw her walking down the aisle, I lost it. She looked so beautiful, and I had been looking forward to that day for a long time,” Verlander told PEOPLE of their wedding in March 2018. “All the emotions came to me, and it was everything I had imagined it would be and more.”
On Nov. 7, 2018, the two welcomed their daughter, Genevieve. Nearly seven years later on June 19, 2025, they expanded their family with their son, Bellamy Brooks.
On Sept. 26, Verlander played the final game of his storied career and was joined on the field by Upton, Genevieve and Bellamy as he departed the pitching mound for the final time.
02 of 08
Tucker, a former MLB shortstop, and High School Musical actress Hudgens have been “all in this together” since they began dating in 2020.
In February 2021, the couple went Instagram official. Hudgens later revealed that she made the first move, sliding into Tucker’s DMs after they met in a Zoom meditation group.
“He’s just kind of perfect for me,” Hudgens said on The Drew Barrymore Show. “If I want something or someone, I’m going after them ... I fully just slid into his DMs and was like, ‘Hey, it was nice to meet you.’ So I think there is no shame in making the first move.”
Two years later in February 2023, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram, sharing a photo of Hudgens posing with her new ring in Paris. On Dec. 2, 2023, the couple got married in Tulum, Mexico, at the Azulik City of Arts in a ceremony officiated by On Purpose host Jay Shetty.
In July 2024, they welcomed their first child, a son, and in November 2025, they welcomed their second child, a daughter.
03 of 08
Skenes and Dunne met while dominating their respective sports at Louisiana State University (LSU). Skenes’ roommate was dating a friend of Dunne’s, leading to their introduction.
“Just a small-world type of thing,” Skenes later told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Fans first noticed Dunne sporting Skenes’ jersey in a June 2023 TikTok shared with her millions of followers. Skenes confirmed their relationship in his August 2023 interview with The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette before the couple became Instagram official the following month.
Due to Skenes’ hectic baseball schedule and Dunne’s own commitments, the two often maintain a long-distance relationship. In March 2026, Dunne told PEOPLE that the key is to be “super present.”
“I mean, he makes time to come to my events,” she said. “I make time to go watch him pitch. I try to make every start I can.”
04 of 08
Cody Bellinger has been in a relationship with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Chase Carter Bellinger since 2020.
Just over a year after going Instagram official in October 2020, Cody and Chase welcomed their first child together, Caiden Carter Bellinger, on Nov. 27, 2021. On April 28, 2023, the Maxim cover girl and former MVP welcomed their second daughter together, Cy Carter Bellinger.
Ahead of the birth of their first daughter, Cody spoke with PEOPLE about how he felt confident having a child with Chase because of their similar world views.
“We kind of see life the same, so I think that’s where it’s really going to work out,” Bellinger said in August 2021.
In June 2023, the couple got engaged after Cody proposed in Chicago. In December of that year, fans noticed that the two were photographed together with rings on their fingers and that Chase had changed her last name on Instagram.
05 of 08
For 3-time World Series champion Kiké and former Miss Universe Puerto Rico Mariana, it was love at first screening.
Kiké discovered Mariana upon watching the actress in Hot Tub Time Machine 2 in 2015, which led to him looking her up, DMing her and arranging their first date two months later.
“He found me on social media and sent a message congratulating me on my performance,” Mariana told Inside Weddings.
In July 2017, Kiké popped the question to Mariana while on vacation in Big Sur, Calif.
“I’m going to marry the woman of my dreams!!!!!! Words can’t do justice to express how happy and excited I am to marry this amazing woman! Mariana you are so much more to me than just my absolute best friend and the love of my life!!! I admire how incredibly talented you are, it’s truly amazing how great you are at everything you do,” he wrote in the caption. “I don’t think I’d ever met a more genuine person than you, you make me want to be a better person.”
The couple tied the knot just over a year later on Dec. 8, 2018, in Puerto Rico surrounded by friends and family. They welcomed their first child, daughter Penélope Isabel, on Jan. 15, 2021, and their son, Santiago José, on Feb. 25, 2026.
06 of 08
Dansby and Mallory Swanson are a true sports power couple.
Dansby won a World Series with the Atlanta Braves, while Mallory is a soccer player for Chicago Stars FC and United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT). They met when Dansby’s former Braves teammate Jace Peterson set him up on a blind date with his sister-in-law, Mallory, in 2017.
The athletic pair became Instagram official in 2018. They got engaged in December 2021 when Dansby got down on one knee on the front stoop of their home.
The couple wed one year later on Dec. 10, 2022, at the Ritz Carlton Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Ga., in what they called an “enchanted forest” ceremony. In July 2025, when the couple was expecting their first child, Dansby told PEOPLE how he was supporting Mallory.
“We just have such a great relationship with one another obviously, and I’ve been just learning things that make her life a little bit easier right now,” Dansby said. “Just doing everything I can to be there for her and to do things that she’s not even thinking about ... trying to earn all my husband points now.”
In November 2025, the couple officially welcomed their daughter, Josie James Swanson.
07 of 08
It was love at first sight for five-time All Star Francisco Lindor when he saw a picture of violinist and The Unaparent podcast host Katia Reguero Lindor on Instagram. After seeing a picture of her, he reached out to her through her DMs while she was studying music at St. Mary’s University in 2019.
“There is this stereotype that athletes maybe don’t have as much depth and that was just something that I immediately loved about him,” Katia said on PEOPLE’s Wag World in July 2026. “He was honest and really open and really showed effort and we just became really good friends at first and hit it off. And here we are, three kids later.”
The following year, the couple welcomed their first daughter, Kalina Zoé, on Nov. 4, 2020. A year after that the couple got married on Dec. 16, 2021, at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami.
The couple welcomed their second daughter, Amapola Chloé, two years later in June 2023 and their son, Koa Amani, two years after that in March 2025.
The couple made headlines again later that year when Katia performed the national anthem on violin during Hispanic Heritage Night at Citi Field before Francisco took the mound for the New York Mets.
08 of 08
Two-time World Series Champion and four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani has found love in fellow athlete Mamiko Tanaka. Tanaka played four years for the Fujitsu Red Wave of the Women’s Japan Basketball League.
Ohtani is notoriously private about his personal life. He even kept his wife’s identity a secret upon first revealing they got married in 2024, shortly after he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“Not only have I began a new chapter in my career with the Dodgers but I also have began a new life with someone from my Native country of Japan who is very special to me and I wanted everyone to know I am now married,” Ohtani wrote on Instagram.
The couple share a dog named Decoy. On April 19, 2025, Ohtani announced that they’d welcomed their first child, a daughter.
“I am so grateful to my loving wife who gave birth to our healthy beautiful daughter,” he wrote on Instagram. “To my daughter, thank you for making us very nervous yet super anxious parents.”
In June 2026, Ohtani announced the birth of their second child. “We are again overjoyed to experience this wonderful day in our lives together. Thank you for being born safely,” Ohtani wrote on Instagram.
Read the original article on People
Back
Top
| Privacy Statement Terms of Service Contact |
Refresh
|
All the best breaking news stories from Apex Football Lite. Optimised for feature phones and low end Android devices, Apex Football Lite helps users with legacy devices and poor network connectivity access the latest football news and live scores. Particularly relevant for breaking football news in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.