“There’s not another city that wants it more than the Circle City,” outfielder Mitch Jebb said.
And the Circle City proved it wanted it: 555,657 fans made their way to Victory Field in 2026, the second-highest attendance in all of Triple-A and ranking top-five among the 30 teams for the fifth straight year. The Indians’ faithful witnessed a storybook season: one that saw a team treading water in 18th place in the International League battle for first place in the second half.
Indianapolis won 75 games in 2026. But the Indians organization achieved far more victories than the record presents. Like Jebb so eloquently alluded to, this was more than a group of 27 players fighting alone. The Indians showed up for the city, and the city proudly represented their team through a brand refresh, innovative partnerships, successful celebrations, community nights, homages to Indianapolis history and more.
Hand in hand, the team on the diamond, the front office staff and the fans in the stadium orchestrated a winning season all year long, on and off the field. Take a look back at some of the most memorable moments at Victory Field throughout 2026 below:
1. New Look, Same Team
Four years of hard work made its on-field debut on a chilly March morning. When the Indianapolis Indians took the field on March 27, so did their brand refresh. A new look driven by the efforts of Senior Director of Brand, Marketing and Communications Adam Pintar, Creative Director Ryan Lane, Senior Graphic Designer Levi Lennard and Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer Joel Zawacki, it honors the city’s deep baseball history and their recent partnership with the Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana. Embracing their role as the longest-standing professional organization in Indianapolis, the Indians adopted the new tagline, “Indy’s Original Home Team.
2. Remember the Name
The charm of minor league baseball is actually something you cannot see. It’s a feeling, almost. It’s both the understanding of and the complete obliviousness to the fact that the next great ballplayer is on the diamond right in front of you. The city, no, the country could have told you that a future Cy Young-award winner was on the mound at Victory Field in 2024 from the moment Paul Skenes toed the rubber. Maybe people felt that premonition when Konnor Griffin, baseball’s consensus No. 1 overall prospect entering the year, led off on the Indians’ Opening Day, and scored the club’s first run of 2026. But there is something equally exciting about watching unfamiliar players take the field and prove their name should be in the conversation just as much as anyone else’s.
Twenty five Pirates farmhands made their Triple-A debut with Circle City this year, and eight made their major league debuts. One who did both is 23-year-old right-hander Antwone Kelly. Entering the season as Pittsburgh’s No. 9 prospect, he began the season on the Indians Opening Day roster. He got into his groove in late April, when Kelly threw his second career complete game on the road at Memphis on the 29th. He continued to dominate in May, setting a personal best for innings pitched (6.1, May 6 [2] vs. Omaha) and matched his single-game career-high in strikeouts (nine, May 22 at Toledo). On June 12, the kid from Oranjestad, Aruba made his major league debut vs. Miami, becoming just the seventh Aruban-born player to appear in the majors. After an up-and-down year, Kelly finished the season with the big league club.
Mitch Jebb. If you know his name, you were one of those 555,657 ballpark visitors this year, because Jebb made sure to make an impact when Indians Manager Eric Patterson wrote his name in the lineup. The 24-year-old grabbed the spotlight as soon as he set foot in the Circle City and never let go. In his third-ever Triple-A game on April 23 vs. St. Paul, Jebb went 4-for-5 with two home runs, one double, four RBI, three runs and one stolen base. Playing out of his mind, an uncomfortable slide into first base landed him on the injured list a week later. After missing 71 games, Jebb launched a home run in his first at-bat back. He was not only made for the moment, but also a player who made every moment count. Jebb was one of the team’s top hitters and battled just one late-August slump all season. And he did do it for the Circle City, batting .323 at home.
Connor Wietgrefe joined the Indy squad from Double-A Altoona on June 25 and never looked back. He took the loss in a shaky first start, but rose to the top of the leaderboards in his first full month in Triple-A. In July, Wietgrefe tied for the league lead in wins (4) and made a historic start on July 12. The 24-year-old delivered a near-perfect outing vs. Toledo, tossing 8.0 scoreless innings with just one hit allowed. It was the longest outing by an Indians pitcher since James Marvel threw 8.0 innings on Oct. 1, 2021, vs. Nashville. Wietgrefe went on to strike out 134 batters on the campaign, the second most among Pirates farmhands this season, and finished the regular season with the most innings pitched (151.1) of all Pittsburgh’s minor leaguers.
3. Making History
Wietgrefe etched his name into the Indians history books with his 8.0-inning start, but he wasn’t the only one to make their mark. On May 12 at Louisville, Jhostynxon Garcia launched three home runs to tie the franchise single-game long ball record. He also matched the Victory Field era record with five hits in one game, piling on a pair of singles to his three dingers.
Three Indians batters — Jack Brannigan, Nick Cimillo and Enmanuel Valdez — launched two grand slams each this season, adding their names to a list of just eight total players in the Victory Field era to post multiple grand slams in a single season. Prior to 2026, Victory Field had never seen two players hit multiple grand slams in one season, let alone three.
The Indians pitching staff threw three one-hitters this year, marking the first time in the Victory Field era they have tallied three one-hitters in a single season. They tied Gwinnett and Las Vegas for the most one-hitters pitched in Triple-A, doing so on May 9 vs. Omaha, July 12 vs. Toledo and Aug. 9 vs. Iowa. Indianapolis pitched two one-hitters in 2008 and 2009.
4. Heritage Collections
The Indianapolis Indians marketing and creative teams revealed two significant Heritage Collections for the 2026 season, a nod to two communities that have immense influence on the historic ball club.
On March 11, the Indians announced their Native American Heritage Collection: uniforms designed to celebrate the legacy of Eastern Woodlands tribes of Central Indiana. The collection is a product of intention and conversation — more than 100 interviews were conducted with local leaders, Native Americans and MLB representatives. The team wore the heritage collection once a month at Victory Field, debuting the hats and jerseys on May 9. More about the design and the team’s collaboration with the Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana can be read here.
In addition to strong ties to the Indian community, Indianapolis is deeply rooted in Black baseball history. Two notable professional baseball teams of the Negro Leagues called the Circle City home in the early 1900s: the Indianapolis ABCs and the Indianapolis Clowns. On Aug. 21 and 22, Indianapolis celebrated these teams and Black history, hosting Negro Leagues Weekend at Victory Field. With the new Negro Leagues Heritage Collection, the organization partnered with GANGGANG to revive the visual identities of the historic ABCs and Clowns. For two days, the Indians took the field in their limited-edition ABCs jerseys designed by Kyle Nagy. Night one of the weekend kicked off with more than 8,000 fans in attendance and was capped by an electric walk-off, a defeat of the Louisville Bats with a two-out sac fly by Joshua Palacios.
5. Going Bananas and Clowning Around
The Indianapolis Clowns also found their way back to Naptown this summer. They did so through Banana Ball, a barnstorming professional baseball league known for its entertainment: fun rules, trick plays, mid-game dances and more. In 2025, Banana Ball announced the return of the Indianapolis Clowns, a revival of the Negro Leagues team, and their partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The Clowns came to their hometown for the first time on May 15 and 16, and the Circle City did not disappoint. Fans filled Victory Field, packing the parking lot for pregame festivities and rising for a deeply moving round of applause when Little League World Series legend Mo’ne Davis, the first girl to earn a win and to throw a shutout in the LLWS, took the mound. Former major leaguers Ryan Howard and Jackie Bradley Jr. also headlined the team. The Indianapolis Clowns’ act was a combination of modern entertainment mixed with historical storytelling, as the team paid homage to its Negro Leagues history and honored original Clowns such as Hank Aaron, Satchel Paige and Toni Stone through speeches by current players and signage around the ballpark.
6. Always a Hit!
One of the oldest minor league franchises teamed up with the sixth-oldest state fair in the United States. This year, the Indianapolis Indians were named the presenting sponsor of the Indiana State Fair, the largest event in Indiana. From Aug. 7 to Aug. 23, state fairgoers stepped into the batter’s box at Schumacher Stadium, a wiffle ball field where home run derbies and makeshift pickup games took place all month long. It was a team effort: spearheaded by Community Outreach Manager Mary Mueller and her partner-in-crime Rowdie, they helped coordinate the Indians’ on-site presence at the fair, the Indians ground crew came out to paint the field, the merchandise team set up camp and front office staff volunteered to help run games at Schumacher Stadium. Back at the Vic, state fair favorites such as donut burgers, elephant ears, tenderloins and corn dogs were sold at concession stands.
7. RONNY. SIMON.
Does this one really need an explanation?
You’d never see Ronny Simon taking the field without a smile. And for good reason — Simon was one of the league’s best hitters all season long, leading the International League in batting average (.334) by a landslide and topping the Triple-A leaderboard, too. He is the first Indians player to be named the league batting champion in 37 years (Junior Noboa, 1989), and is just the 14th Indians player in franchise history to do so. The 26-year-old from La Romana, Dominican Republic, was named Indians Team MVP after leading the club in hits (141), total bases (199), doubles (33) and stolen bases (35). He was a bright spot for the Circle City all season long; while he stayed busy stuffing the stat sheet, he never neglected to cheerfully greet Indians grounds crew, high-five young fans or smile in videographer Jake Ulrey’s camera before running to the outfield.
8. New Captain of the Ship
Before every game, he walked through the tunnel and up into the dugout. He quietly went about his pregame tasks, pinning the lineup sheet on the dugout wall, sitting on the dugout bench and going over the challenge ahead of him. He was calm and collected, like how game days felt before the contest started: the peaceful moments of warm-up tosses, stretching and light jogging as fans strolled into the ballpark. But Indians manager Eric Patterson could flip the switch as fast as the first pitch was thrown, ready to go to bat for any of his guys.
Patterson stood at the helm of the ship for the 2026 season, his first year as manager and second with the Indians. Supported by a coaching staff of seven, three new faces to the Circle City joined him: catching and game planning coach JD Closser, pitching coach Nasusel Cabrera and hitting coach Casey Harms. They led a 31-44 team through the first half to a 44-31 second half, transforming this year’s group into a formidable playoff contender.
For the Circle City. #4TCC
