Celebrating Black History Month: Highlighting Zelous Wheeler

In celebration of Black History Month, throughout February, teams across Minor League Baseball are looking back at some of the best Black players to suit up for their club.

While some of these standout performers from across the sport went on to long and illustrious Major League careers, others simply had great Minor League careers. Some were notable for their presence, both on and off the field. And, in a few cases, some had that one incredible season that went down as “a year for the ages.”

Over the month, we will highlight some of the best Black baseball players to ever suit up for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

In the last few years, all players featured have suited up for the Red Barons, SWB Yankees and RailRiders. In the past, we have highlighted greats like In the past, we have featured greats like Marlon Anderson, Ryan Howard, Aaron Judge, Wendell Magee and Jimmy Rollins.

In 2024, we focused on Tony Barron, DJ Mitchell and Floyd Rayford, Austin Jackson, Kevin Jordan and Billy McMillon, Lou Collier, Jamie Westbrook and Mason Williams as well as Chris Dickerson, Tony Longmire and Thomas Neal.

Last week, we featured Hall-of-Famer Leon Day.

Zelous Wheeler

Wheeler was selected by Milwaukee in the 19th round of the 2007 First-Year Player Draft. He reached Triple-A for Milwaukee in 2011 and spent parts of the next two seasons between Double-A Bowie and Norfolk in Baltimore’s system.

New York signed Wheeler to a Minor League agreement for 2014 and assigned him to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre out of Spring Training. He started the season strong for the RailRiders, batting .421 over his first seven games with four muti-hit efforts, but was forced to the Injured List with a back injury. He returned in late April and hit .289 in his next 59 games for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre with seven home runs and 30 batted in.

The Yankees promoted Wheeler to the bigs for the first time in his career on July 2, 2014. The next day, he made his Major League Debut against the Minnesota Twins. Former RailRider and Yankee Phil Hughes induced a pop-out in Wheeler’s first at-bat. In the fifth inning, Wheeler knocked his first MLB hit; a solo home run to center off Hughes.

Wheeler spent the remainder of the season bouncing between New York and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He closed the campaign with a .296 average with the RailRiders over 82 games.

After 2014, the Yankees sold Wheeler’s contract to the Rakuten Golden Eagles in the Nippon Professional Baseball’s Pacific League. He closed his 16-year professional career after 2022, having played his final eight seasons in Japan with Rakuten and the Yomiuri Giants.