South Bend’s Eloy Jimenez was awarded a top breakout award by Minor League Baseball. (File photo by Mike Deak)

SOUTH BEND – One of the Chicago Cubs most promising prospects was noted for his huge 2016 season.

Eloy Jimenez, who spent 2016 playing for the South Bend Cubs, was awarded the MiLBY Award for Breakout Prospect of the Year, given to the top minor league prospect. Major League Baseball’s prospect watch lists Jimenez among its top 25 and is the No. 2-rated prospect in the Chicago Cubs system.

Jimenez was an obvious standout for the Cubs this past season, collecting 142 hits, 40 doubles, 14 homers, 81 RBIs, eight stolen bases and a slash line of .329/.369/.901 in 112 games with the Low A South Bend club.

Jimenez put on a show at the MLB Futures Game, going 2-for-3 with a double, three-run homer, and had four RBIs along with making a running catch into the bullpen that spun on social media for days after the game.

Jimenez is expected to make the jump to either High A Myrtle Beach or AA West Tennessee next season.

Sam Dykstra of MILB.com wrote an at-length piece of Jimenez surrounding the award.

www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20161031&content_id=207409768&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb