Former College of Wooster star Wielansky wins Caribbean Series MVP

Michael Wielansky, who was drafted by the then-defending World Series champion Houston Astros following his junior year at The College of Wooster, was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2026 Caribbean Series.

Wielansky scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning in the Caribbean Series championship game to lift Charros de Jalisco to a 12-11 victory. The 2018 American Baseball Coaches Association NCAA Division III National Player of the Year went 2-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored in the championship. His two-run single made it 3-0 in the bottom of the second inning. He added a two-out single in the third as part of his team’s four-run inning, taking a 7-1 lead.

Wielansky’s 14 hits in the series broke the record for most by a Mexican player and matched the overall tournament record. His 14 hits are tied with Dominican Emilio Bonifacio — a 12-year Major League Baseball veteran — for the most in the modern era of the Caribbean Confederation.

Per Baseball-Reference.com, Wielansky slashed .303/.408/.412 for Jalisco over 60 games, going 67-for-221 at the dish. He scored 46 runs, drove in 26 and swiped 21 bases. In three seasons of international professional ball, he has a .332 average (238-of-716) with 148 runs, 104 runs batted in, 63 steals, 42 doubles, 12 triples and 10 home runs.

Wielansky played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He played in two games, earning a start in the team’s finale. Wielansky went 2-for-4 and was involved in three double plays against Team Venezuela.

After being drafted in the 18th round following his junior year at Wooster, Wielansky signed a professional contract with the Astros. In four seasons in Houston’s farm system, Wielansky batted .213 (89-for-417) over 132 games. He advanced as high as Triple-A, playing for the Sugar Land Skeeters.

Wielansky has played for several independent league teams in the United States and several professional leagues in the Caribbean since concluding his time in the Astros farm system.

As a junior Wielansky was a consensus first-team ABCA and D3baseball.com All-American and the Mideast Region Player of the Year. He became the second known player in Div. III history to record 200 hits, 200 runs and 150 RBI before the end of his junior year. Wielansky’s play in the Valley Baseball League, one of America’s top summer collegiate wood-bat leagues, put him on the radar of Major League Baseball scouts.

Wielansky was the Valley Baseball League’s Most Valuable Player in 2017 after turning in one of the highest batting averages — .432 — since the league became an NCAA-sanctioned summer league in 1961.