During Jonathon Long’s first two years in the minor leagues with the Chicago Cubs, the infielder put together solid seasons, ripping apart opposing pitching across four different levels.
But the 2025 season offered Long the biggest test of his professional career when he opened the year with the Iowa Cubs and where he would face Triple-A talent for the first time in his tenure.
Long passed the test in a big way and was so impressive with Iowa that he was named Chicago’s Buck O’Neil minor league player of the year on Nov. 24. Jostin Florentino was named Vedie Himsl minor league pitcher of the year.
“I kind of wanted to carry over what I did from Double-A,” Long said in a phone interview with The Des Moines Register on Nov. 24. “I kind of never really expected to just hit the ground running like I did.”
It’s an impressive honor for the 23-year-old who was a ninth-round pick by the Cubs out of Long Beach State in 2023. Ever since then, Long has raked his way through the minors.
He kicked off his professional career by hitting .274 with four doubles and seven homers in 26 games in 2023 in two different levels. Long followed that up with an even better 2024 season, hitting .283/.391/.461 with 21 doubles and 17 homers across two more levels.
Long earned his first promotion to Triple-A to begin the 2025 campaign. He didn’t miss a beat. In fact, Long became one of the top contributors in an Iowa lineup full of prized prospects.
During his first stint in Des Moines, Long tallied career-highs in batting average (.305), on-base percentage (.404) and slugging percentage (.479). Long also tallied a career-best 20 homers with 23 doubles and 91 runs driven in during 140 games with Iowa.
He also showed some versatility by logging playing time in left field, third base and mostly first base. Because of his big bat, Long is ranked as the seventh-best prospect in the Cubs organization by MLB Pipeline.
Florentino went 5-5 with a 2.43 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 16 games between the Rookie Level ACL Cubs and Single-A Myrtle Beach in 2025. His time in Iowa hasn’t come quite yet. But Long’s has. Earning the honor meant a lot to Long.
“A lot of work and preparation and blood, sweat and tears go into a season,” Long said. “To kind of have a recognition of all that is pretty nice.”
Long said he’s spending his offseason working on cutting down his groundball rate and becoming more agile in what should be a big 2026 season for him.
“Hopefully out of the gates, I get going and I just keep carrying that over the rest of the season,” Long said. “I’ve just got to continue with my plan and whatever happens, happens after that.”
Tommy Birch, the Register’s sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He’s the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa Cubs star Jonathon Long named Chicago Cubs minor league player of the year
Reporting by Tommy Birch, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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