Velázquez Named International League Player of the Week for 9/22/25

S. Samek

The final International League player of the week award is headed to a player in the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league system.

Outfielder Nelson Velázquez won the player of the week award this week. He hit .346 with three home runs and 11 RBI. He collected five extra bases hits and had an OPS of 1.139. Velázquez was amongst the league leaders in several offense categories this week on his way to winning the award.

Velázquez was acquired as a minor league free agent from the Mexican League. He is not ranked on the Pirates top 30 prospect list.

He finished the season hitting .284 with five home runs and 17 RBI in 18 games with Indianapolis. Prior to his time in the Mexican League, he also played in 33 games for the Omaha Storm Chasers earlier in the 2025 season.

He is the only Indianapolis player to win player of the week this season. Nick Dombkowski won an International League pitcher of the week award, but those were the only two weekly award winners for this season.

It’s a good way to end the season on a high note for him. However, it could be interesting to see what happens to him in the off season. Could this strong week be an audition for a free agent spot with the Pirates either in Triple-A or maybe the majors, or maybe this was a one-time pick up for bench depth at the level to finish out the year? Either way I think it was a solid pickup late in the season.