INDIANAPOLIS – Minor League Baseball today announced that Indianapolis Indians first baseman Nick Cimillo and left-handed pitcher Connor Wietgrefe were named the International League Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, for Sept. 14-20. Cimillo hit .381 (8-for-21) with four doubles, two home runs, 13 RBI, seven runs and a 1.301 OPS in this span. His 13 RBI were the most among all minor leaguers in this timeframe. Wietgrefe spun a gem in his final start on Sept. 17 at Gwinnett, tossing 6.0 scoreless and hitless innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. It was one of just 11 instances since at least 2005 where an Indians starting pitcher authored 6.0 innings or more without allowing a hit or run.
The pair end the season as Indy’s third and fourth recipients of an MiLB weekly award this season, joining right-handed pitcher Khristian Curtis (June 8-14) and infielder Enmanuel Valdez (June 29-July 5). Since rejoining the IL in 1998, this is the second occurrence of Indianapolis sweeping the league’s weekly awards (1B/DH Jason Rogers and LHP Steven Brault, May 15-21, 2017).
Cimillo, 26, had a monstrous week in Gwinnett posting multi-RBI performances in each of the first four games of the series, including back-to-back four-RBI contests on Sept. 17 and 18. On Friday night, Cimillo capped Indy’s onslaught with a grand slam for a 15-0 lead in the sixth inning. It was his second grand slam on the campaign as he joined Valdez and Jack Brannigan as the third Indians player to post multiple slams in 2026. No other Indians team in the Victory Field era (since 1996) has had more than one player post a multi-grand-slam season.
Cimillo ended his year on a torrid run, hitting .333 (18-for-54) with six doubles, one triple, six home runs, 23 RBI, 13 runs and a 1.202 OPS in 15 September games. He had one-plus hit in 13 of those 15 and seven multi-RBI games in the month.
Wietgrefe, 24, earned his sixth win of the season on Sept. 12 with a season-best seven strikeouts. Of the 11 aforementioned Indians starts of 6.0-plus innings with no runs or hits since at least 2005, Wietgrefe is one of just eight to punch out seven-plus within the criteria. The last Indians pitcher to do so was Chase De Jong on April 13, 2022, at St. Paul (7.0ip, 0h, 0er, 2bb, 9k).
The southpaw ended the season with some of his best work, posting a 0.51 ERA (1er/17.2ip), 16 punchouts, 0.91 WHIP and .148 opponent average (9-for-61) over his final three starts. Wietgrefe’s 151.1ip in 2026 were the third most among minor leaguers. Across 15 starts with the Indians, he went 6.0-plus innings in nine of those and 5.0 or more in all but two. Eight of these 15 starts featured one run allowed or fewer.