Wilgen Reyes

Wilgen de Jesús Gibbons Reyes (Willie)

• Bats Both, Throws Right

• Born January 17, 1968 in Barahona, Barahona D.R.

Biographical Information

Wilgen Reyes played in the Bundesliga and for the German national team.

A Dominican native, he settled in Germany and became a citizen there. In the 1993 European Championship, he hit .375/.412/.563 with 6 RBI in 6 games. He led the team in RBI, two ahead of Stephan Jäger and Matthias Winterrath. He also led them in average (.020 ahead of Georg Bull) and slugging (.007 ahead of Sven Huhnholz). He was the MVP of the Bundesliga-1 North in 1993. The first season for which Bundesliga-1 stats are available online (as of 6/8/2026) is 1994, when he batted .389/.427/.722 with 28 runs and 28 RBI for the Berlin Challengers. He was 9th in the Bundesliga-1 north in average, was second in homers (5), tied Matthias Klünder for 6th in RBI, tied for 6th in hits (35), was 4th in doubles (15), ranked 10th in runs, placed 5th in slugging, was 8th in OPS and placed 3rd in steals (20).

In 1995, he produced at a .443/.538/.784 clip with 33 runs and 31 RBI in 28 games. He made leaderboards for average (4th), homers (6, tied for 3rd), RBI (4th, between Torsten Abels and Ralph Wentz), hits (39, 2nd), doubles (12, tied for 2nd), runs (tied for 5th), walks (17, tied for 8th), slugging (4th), OBP (4th) and OPS (4th). He was 2 for 6 with a run in the 1995 European Championship. With the 1996 Challengers, he was at .407/.478/.763; he tied for 3rd with 5 homers and was 7th with 122 putouts but did not make any other top-10 lists due to limited time. In '97, he hit .400/.467/.600 for the Berlin Phoenix. He tied for 5th in home runs (4), was 8th in slugging (between Wentz and Marc Marsch), was 10th in OPS and was 3rd with 149 putouts. He hit .370/.393/.407 for the German team in the 1997 European Championship. He led Germany in hits (10, one ahead of Marsch) and average (.002 ahead of Winterrath).

Reyes had a .366/.504/.545 batting line for the 1998 Phoenix. He tied for 6th with 5 homers, was 6th with 26 walks, placed 8th in OBP (between Octavio Medina and Martin Helmig). In '99, he batted .341/.400/.489 for the Strausberg Sun Warriors. He was 0 for 5 with a walk in the 1999 European Championship, his final stint with the national team. He hit .405/.444/.690 for the 2000 Sun Warriors, tying for 7th in home runs (5), was 5th with 9 doubles and ranked 9th in slugging. With Germany switching from aluminum bats to wood in 2001, he still batted .341/.426/.585, though in limited action. For the 2002 season, his last Bundesliga-1 campaign, he hit .261/.338/.391. He remained active in the German minors, playing for the reconstituted Challengers as late as 2010, when he was 42 years old, still hitting .356.

From 1994-2002, he had hit .376/.453/.620 in 183 Bundesliga-1 games, scoring 179 runs and driving in 173. He had 61 doubles, 36 homers and 57 steals. His .333 career average for the national team was 5th in team annals as of 2010 (the last time Germany updated this list as of 6/9/2026), between Klaus Knüttel and Tarek Shaer and his .368 OBP was 15th.

Primary source: German Baseball and Softball Federation