Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
BY J.A. SCHWARTZ
A little more than a year ago, Athletics rookie first baseman Nick Kurtz made major league history. On July 25, 2025 in Houston, Kurtz went six for six, blasting four home runs and driving in eight runs. It was the first time in major league history that a rookie hit four homers in a single contest. “It’s still very surreal to me, that I actually did that,” Kurtz noted when asked about that remarkable day. “I was hurting that day, and we were trying to figure out when I could get a day off, and he (manager Mark Kotsay) said ‘how about you DH…and we’ll get you an off day later on,” Kurtz recalled. “I knew I was swinging well, but I never thought it would come to that-that’s not really something you think about doing…It just kind of happens.” Asked to choose his favorite blast of the four he hit, Kurtz was definitive: “My third home run of that game. It was a fastball up and in, a pitch I usually don’t do a lot of damage on, and I kind of turned and burned on it. To hit one pull side, with good launch, it felt really good.”
While that single game accomplishment is inarguably noteworthy, it represents only a snapshot in time of Kurtz’ early career exploits, and certainly portends the possibility of extraordinary achievement for the 2025 AL Rookie of the Year.
The Athletics franchise has had nine past Rookies of the Year, including Harry Byrd (1952), Jose Canseco (1986), Mark McGwire (1987), Walt Weiss (1988), Ben Grieve (1998), Bobby Crosby (2004), Huston Street (2005) and Andrew Bailey (2009). Each of these players were outstanding in their debut seasons, leading to the honor of being voted Rookie of the Year.
In his first 900 plate appearances, covering roughly his first two plus seasons, Canseco had an adjusted weighted runs created of 111(a measure that approximates a hitter’s value adjusted for the era he played in as well as the ballpark he competed in). That metric indicates that Canseco outhit the average player by 11% during that time frame.
Over his first 900 plate appearances, franchise icon Rickey Henderson put up a 118 wRC+.
Mark McGwire, who set the rookie HR record in 1987, his debut season, compiled a wRC+ number of 151 over his first 900 plate appearances.
Among non-Athletics, recent superstars such as Alex Rodriguez (133wRC+), Manny Ramirez (135), Joey Votto (136), Ronald Acuna, Jr (136), Juan Soto (140), Mike Schmidt (143), Mike Piazza (144), Mike Trout (149), Albert Pujols (155) and Yordan Alvarez (156) were incredibly productive upon reaching the majors, and have gone on to have likely Hall of Fame caliber careers. Even Shohei Ohtani, who came to the majors after a career as a professional in Japan, posted a wRC+ of 127 over his first 900 plate appearances.
Nick Kurtz, over his first 900 plate appearances, has posted a wRC+ of 159. Not only is that figure excellent, but it is historically significant. Over their first two seasons, only such luminaries as Frank Thomas (177), Aaron Judge (162) and Fernando Tatis Jr.(160) have outperformed the offensive metrics Kurtz has amassed as a young slugger over similar plate appearance totals. In the past fifty years, few others have approached those levels.
Now, lest the reader jump to conclusions that the author is suggesting the Nick Kurtz, through the early stages of his fledgling career, is a better player than ANY of the great stars above, let me assure you that I am in no way making that statement. It is important, however, to recognize how incredibly rare it is for a young player to produce at such a high level in the nascent stage of his baseball life, and that it is worthwhile to highlight these players not only for what they have already done on the field, but for what they may well do going forward.
To say that Kurtz has hit the ground running in an unprecedented way for the Athletics franchise would be a massive understatement. Among the other offensive achievements already discussed, he’s only the third player in franchise history to hit 20 or more home runs in each of their first two seasons in the majors (Bob Johnson did so in 1933-34, and Yoenis Cespedes did it in 2012-2013). The Athletics franchise dates back to 1901, when they played in Philadelphia, meaning that there have been nearly 125 years of players who have failed to post a start to their career as dominant and powerful as Kurtz has.
He’s not infallible, however. Kurtz had a recent stretch where he went 0-25 between July 3 and July 26th, proving that even the greatest hitters run into struggles at the highest level. On the anniversary of his four homer game, he went 0-4 with four strikeouts. He was placed on the injured list for a right thumb sprain July 10th before returning July 25th, which may have hampered his swing during that period and impacted his hitting results. He broke that slump with a home run to left field against the on Sunday, his 21st of the season.
The Athletics drafted Kurtz fourth overall in the 2024 draft after a stellar career at Wake Forest. The 2024 draft has already produced several players that have ascended to the major leagues, including first overall pick Travis Bazzana of the Guardians, Chase Burns of the Reds (second overall), J.J. Wetherholt of the Cardinals (seventh), Konnor Griffin of the Pirates (ninth) and postseason revelation Trey Yesavage of the Blue Jays (20th). Burns, Wetherholt and Griffin have been signed to long term contract extensions by their drafting clubs, each earning upwards of $100 million in total guaranteed salaries. Griffin and Wetherholt play shortstop and second base, respectively, and their offensive upside at premium defensive positions rightfully inform their value to the teams who just recently drafted them. To date, Kurtz has comfortably outperformed every 2024 draftee in the batters box, and A’s fans should be eagerly anticipating the front office attempting to sign their young slugger to a similar contract to insure he’ll be in green and gold for a long time.
Kurtz’ offensive prowess was honed during his college career at Wake Forest. Even as a 19-year-old freshman, he showed a discerning eye at the plate, walking in nearly 19% of his plate appearances, a number that climbed to 24% in his second year. “It’s the approach that they instilled in me, that’s what Wake Forest did really well for me,” Kurtz noted when commenting about his time in school. In his draft year of 2024, he walked 30% of the time, as pitchers stopped giving him much to swing at. Kurtz hit 15 home runs as a freshman, then another 46 over his last two seasons, increasing his slugging percentage to over .700 over his final two collegiate campaigns.
He brought that selectivity and powerful swing with him as a professional, where he’s featured a 15% walk rate as a major leaguer, which is fourth best in all of baseball behind only Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Mike Trout. His .562 slugging percentage is third best behind only Judge and Shohei Ohtani since the start of the 2025 season. How can such a young player be demonstrating a skill set that only the most decorated hitting savants in the game can claim? The answer might be in his swing.
Since he debuted in 2025, Kurtz has the fourth fastest bat speed in the league, at 77.7 miles per hour, dramatically better than the major league average of 71.9. The vast majority (76%) of his swings are considered “fast”-over 75 MPH, where the average hitter only swings at that speed a quarter of the time. When he can get the ball in the air, a stunning 29.5% of his efforts leave the park, the second best mark in the game since 2025 behind only young Nationals slugger James Wood. It’s also the second best mark among ALL hitters since 2002 behind only Aaron Judge.
The combination of a discerning eye (Kurtz swings at pitches outside the strike zone 25.6% of the time, 23rd best in the majors) and his lethal bat speed have helped fuel Kurtz’ offensive performance. It has also led to some massively long bombs, including a 493 foot blast off Scott Barlow in September of 2025, a grand slam hit in Sacramento that led to an 11-5 A’s win over the Reds. That was the longest homer mashed in 2025, and Kurtz also owns the third deepest round-tripper thus far in 2026, a 471 foot dinger launched against Seth Halvorsen June 12th in Las Vegas in a 6-4 A’s triumph. That was only the third longest home run this season, but speaks to Kurtz’ incredibly rare combination of bat speed and power.
Kurtz is only 23 years old, born on March 12, 2003 in Lancaster PA. Based on his actual performance to date and the underlying skills that support his efforts at the plate, most projection systems see Kurtz getting better as he continues his major league career, a thought that should be terrifying to the pitching staffs around baseball. Though the Athletics franchise is in a state of transition, playing their games in Sacramento the past two seasons as their new palatial $2 billion stadium is being built in Las Vegas, their long tradition of producing great young players has continued in Nick Kurtz (and 2025 AL ROY runner up Jacob Wilson). They’ve had nine total Rookies of the Year, second only to the Yankees ten in the history of the American League, and may well have another in 2027 as Leo DeVries, an infielder acquired from San Diego in the Mason Miller trade at last year’s deadline, ascends towards the majors.
Hitters as young and powerful as Nick Kurtz come around once in a generation, and often have careers that end up being celebrated with a plaque in Cooperstown. Fans in Sacramento, and soon in Las Vegas, would be wise to purchase tickets to see the young man play. Partisans who did so last July 25th were fortunate enough to see history made when Kurtz went six for six with his four homers – a rookie record – and eight RBIs. It boggles the imagination to conceive of what magic may yet lie in that bat as he gains more experience as a major leaguer.
