Jonathon Long’s Success Opens Trade Possibilities
Jonathon Long has been on a tear offensively, routinely destroying baseball for Triple-A Iowa to establish team leads with nine homers and 41 runs batted in. Long, a ninth-round draft pick in 2023, posted an .852 OPS in 2024 between South Bend and Tennessee. That was enough for the Cubs to start him in Iowa this season, making it a fairly rapid rise for a player who was overlooked coming out of high school and had to walk on at Long Beach State.
Though the runs count the same either way, the majesty of Long’s longballs has been one of the most impressive aspects of his game. These aren’t wall-scrapers.
A certified LONG ball! 😲@Cubs prospect Jonathan Long demolishes one 453 feet for the @IowaCubs: pic.twitter.com/e65n8FIlzD
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) June 1, 2025
Long’s impressive start helps his case for an eventual promotion, although there isn’t room for him in Chicago right now. As we’ve seen with several other prospects that have come through the system, Jed Hoyer and Craig Counsell don’t want to promote someone just to sit on the bench. Then there’s the matter of Long not being on the Cubs’ 40-man roster, which creates another obstacle in the way of his big league dreams.
A Michael Busch injury with prolonged IL time is probably the only way Long gets promoted to Chicago at this point. Justin Turner isn’t getting enough playing time to warrant Long replacing him, plus Long is a right-handed batter and wouldn’t present a platoon advantage even if the Cubs just needed depth at first. Long’s clearest path to a promotion might end up being with another team.
He’s mainly playing at first base, although Matt Shaw‘s return to Chicago has allowed him to work at third base from time to time. Saturday marked Long’s first start in left field as he continues to add variety to his defensive tools. The Cubs might see that as giving him more ways to get to Chicago, but showcasing his skills for a trade with the deadline approaching feels more likely.
Not that he needs much more showcasing than his numbers are doing.
Given their incredibly similar looking swings, I thought it might be fun to see what Jonathon Long’s numbers in 50 Triple-A games would look like extrapolated out to Kris Bryant’s 70 Triple-A games in 2014.
KB: .295/.418/.619, 14 2B, 21 HR
Long: .352/.420/.560, 14 2B, 11 HR— Greg Huss (@OutOfTheVines) May 31, 2025
From almost quitting baseball in high school because colleges kept passing him over to being ranked as the Cubs’ No. 13 prospect, Long just keeps posting big stats without much fanfare. That’s starting to change as more people pay attention to what he’s doing, and you can bet pro scouts are keeping close tabs on him knowing the Cubs probably don’t have room in Chicago either this year or next.
One way or the other, Long is a prospect to watch very closely over the next two months and possibly beyond.
