Cubs' Long, Tigers' Miller earn Fall League Week 5 honors

Week 5 in the Arizona Fall League was about spotlighting the best the top prospect circuit had to offer, with Fall Star festivities limiting regular-season AFL play to only four days in the desert. These two players stood out for squeezing exceptional performances into that small sample.

Mesa corner outfielder/infielder Jonathon Long (CHC No. 30) powered his way to AFL Hitter of the Week honors and Scottsdale left-hander Jake Miller (Tigers) twirled one of the best outings from any pitcher this fall to claim Pitcher of the Week honors.

The only AFL player to homer twice this week, Long hit his fifth and sixth home runs of the fall on consecutive days from Nov. 5-6, pulling him into a tie for second place on the league’s home run charts. The ninth-round pick from 2023 also hit .400 (6-for-15) with four walks, five RBIs, six runs scored and 13 total bases – the most among AFL hitters – on the week. Additionally, he drove in two runs in the National League’s 6-5 loss in the Fall Stars Game, courtesy of a sac fly and a run-scoring groundout.

The ninth-round pick from 2023 has been mashing for Mesa ever since arriving in Arizona, on the heels of a year during which he began carving out his place on the Cubs’ organizational depth chart. Through 16 games, he’s hitting .348/.443/.667 with 16 runs, 23 hits and 19 RBIs, ranking among the league’s top 10 batters in homers, RBIs, hitting, slugging and OPS.

“Catch the ball with the barrel,” Long told MLB Pipeline's Sam Dykstra this week. “That's my motto, and everything else falls into place after that.”

A 23-year-old eighth-round pick from 2022, Miller may have logged the best start of the Fall League so far on Nov. 6 against Peoria. The left-hander struck out eight (without a walk) across four innings of one-hit ball, cruising for the better part of Scottsdale’s 8-1 win. Miller’s 8 K’s weren’t only the most by an AFL pitcher this week, they were also the most in a start by an AFL pitcher this fall.

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Miller transitioned into a swingman role this season and put together his best year as a pro, going 9-3 with a 1.85 ERA in 24 appearances and reaching Double-A Erie by season’s end. He put up those numbers across a career-high 87 ⅓ innings, but the Tigers still felt there was room to build on that total after Miller logged only 50 total innings over his first two seasons in the system.

His outing against Peoria was his best showing of the fall by far, as Miller still owns a 9.42 ERA in 14 ⅓ innings across five appearances in Arizona.