{"id":52118,"date":"2025-08-07T13:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T13:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/52118\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T13:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T13:30:11","slug":"athletics-nick-kurtz-shocked-to-be-mlb-rookie-sensation-a-year-after-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/52118\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletics’ Nick Kurtz ‘shocked’ to be MLB rookie sensation a year after college"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Nick Kurtz<\/a>\u2019s dominance has been so startlingly sudden, so consistent and enduring that it\u2019s challenging to pinpoint exactly when the Athletics<\/a> realized just what they had on their hands.<\/p>\n

It\u2019d be understandable if that moment came in spring training, when the 6-5, 240-pound Kurtz showed up just seven months after he was drafted fourth overall out of Wake Forest and immediately displayed a mindset beyond his years, and a plate approach more suited to a player a decade into his major league career.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019d be obvious if that ah-ha sequence came July 25, when Kurtz became the first rookie in major league history to hit four home runs in a game<\/a>, a 6-for-6 night in which he also tied the major league record with 19 total bases.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps by month\u2019s end, when Kurtz had tallied 25 extra-base hits, one shy of Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx\u2019s franchise record set in 1932, earning him American League rookie and player of the month honors.<\/p>\n

\"Nick<\/p>\n

Nick Kurtz became the first rookie in MLB history to hit four homers in a game.<\/p>\n

For Brent Rooker, though, the jaw dropped for good over two nights in June, when his young teammate\u2019s greatest attributes \u2013 the gorgeous swing, the inner calm, the prodigious power \u2013 came together in a manner that turns bad ballclubs good.<\/p>\n

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The Athletics \u2013 housed in Sacramento for the moment \u2013 might have been swept in four games by the Houston Astros if not for Kurtz. He hit a pair of walk-off home runs in that four-game series, coming off Astros relief aces Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader, moonshots that sent thousands of fans gleefully into the Yolo County night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was good before that,\u201d Rooker, the A\u2019s two-time All-Star outfielder, tells USA TODAY Sports, \u201cbut everybody realized how good he could be. Those were two of the better relievers in the entire league. He had great at-bats against them in crucial situations and hit two home runs to win two games.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs impressive as he was prior to that, those two nights kind of shined a light on how special he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

How special?<\/p>\n

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Special enough to debut April 23 yet still post 23 homers by early August, to go along with a .307 average, 1.035 ERA and 61 RBIs, leading all rookies.<\/p>\n

Special enough to mark that epic four-homer night in Houston (the kid doesn\u2019t like the Astros, it seems) not as an apex but rather the midpoint of a 20-game heater in which he batted .480 with nine homers and a 1.575 OPS. <\/p>\n

And special enough to earn the esteem of a young yet salty clubhouse with his quiet yet significant presence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joy of all of it,\u201d says A\u2019s manager Mark Kotsay, \u201cis the humility that he shows day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘They fly through the minor leagues’<\/p>\n

It would be easy for Kurtz to carry the traits of an entitled young baseball bro. In short, he\u2019s always been elite, even after he left the snowy climes of Lancaster, Pennsylvania in search of greater competition.<\/p>\n

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Kurtz made enough of a splash to earn a spot on Team USA\u2019s 12-and-under team in 2015, a squad that won eight of nine games to claim a WBSC World Cup title in Taiwan. Kurtz was a slugger and also the top pitcher on that team, but it was as much networking opportunity as it was youth baseball nirvana.<\/p>\n

A handful of teammates went on to attend Baylor School, a college prep boarding school and hothouse for baseball development in Tennessee. As Kurtz schlepped through the uncertain weather patterns of Central Pennsylvania in spring, his pals\u2019 recruiting efforts finally paid off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was playing in the snow and bad weather in Pennsylvania,\u201d says Kurtz, \u201cso I decided maybe going south was the best thing for me as a player. It just kind of worked out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what a squad. Christian Moore<\/a> went on to star at Tennessee and was chosen four slots behind Kurtz in the 2024 draft; he also made his major league debut<\/a> this season, for the Los Angeles Angels. Infielder Henry Godbout went on to Virginia, was drafted in the second round in July and signed with the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n

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In his junior year, Kurtz said, almost the entire lineup was committed to Atlantic Coast or Southeastern conference schools.<\/p>\n

Kurtz went to Wake Forest, a school better known for its \u201cpitching lab,\u201d<\/a> yet whose rep for churning out sluggers is about to grow significantly.<\/p>\n

It was there that Kurtz, under associate head coach Bill Cilento and assistant Matthew Wessinger, took both his mechanics and approach to a higher level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s stayed true from my freshman year in college,\u201d says Kurtz, \u201cto where I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

By his junior year, Kurtz\u2019s statistics were predictably video game variety \u2013 a .531 on-base percentage and 22 homers in 54 games, and the A\u2019s snagged Kurtz fourth overall, two picks after teammate Chase Burns<\/a>, a right-handed pitcher, was selected by Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

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Yet consider this: Barely a year later, Kurtz has already hit one more home run in the big leagues (in just 75 games) than he did his senior season at Wake Forest.<\/p>\n

How has Kurtz made the game\u2019s highest level seem as simple as a weekend series at Duke?<\/p>\n

He points to the A\u2019s most recent draft pick \u2013 left-hander Jamie Arnold, chosen 11th overall out of Florida State \u2013 as an example of how the college game is, perhaps more than ever, an express lane to prepare young players for the big leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see more and more guys getting called up earlier than you\u2019ve ever seen before,\u201d says Kurtz. \u201cMore kids, very talented guys are going to college, especially with NIL \u2013 more guys are getting to school.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe picked Jamie Arnold this year. I faced him many times and that\u2019s as pro-ready an arm I\u2019ve seen. I think he\u2019s one of the best. Every school in the SEC, ACC, they might have a guy or two like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe advancements we\u2019ve made internally at the school have prepared all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The A\u2019s will certainly vouch for that. Kurtz is now the overwhelming favorite to earn AL Rookie of the Year honors, but until he suffered a fractured forearm, A\u2019s shortstop Jacob Wilson \u2013 drafted in 2023, debuted in 2024, an All-Star in 2025<\/a> \u2013 was the choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose guys, it seems like they fly through the minor leagues and are ready to compete at the big league level,\u201d says A\u2019s catcher Shea Langeliers, drafted ninth overall out of Baylor by Atlanta in 2019. \u201cThe college game is advancing and those kids are more mature.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe talent level is getting closer to the minor league level, so you\u2019re almost playing minor league baseball in college.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big week for ‘Big Amish’<\/p>\n

Yet Kurtz, Langeliers says, is different.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing him for the first time in spring training, being around him, thinking of when I was 22, compared to where he\u2019s at at 22, it\u2019s just a massive difference,\u201d he says. \u201cMaturity-wise, how he sees the game, how quickly he\u2019s adaptable and adjustable, it\u2019s been really impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kotsay, in his fourth season as A\u2019s manager, hints at an extremely high ceiling for Kurtz based on the dispatch with which he adjusts to pitchers. Kurtz\u2019s 11.4% walk rate is well above average, but as he matures as a hitter, he should cut into a 29.4% K rate.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s really eye-opening to see a young player make adjustments almost pitch-to-pitch in an at-bat, and he\u2019s got that ability, which is really special,\u201d says Kotsay. \u201cWhen we talk about classifying big league hitters, I always say, guys in the Hall of Fame make adjustments pitch-to-pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys that are All-Stars make adjustments at-bat to at-bat, and guys that are everyday players, it can be a game or a series before the adjustment\u2019s made.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s leaning on that top one – where he\u2019s got a knack to make an adjustment pitch-to-pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kurtz is enjoying a big week in the Mid-Atlantic \u2013 he had roughly 40 family and friends roll down from Lancaster to Nationals Park; and no, despite Kurtz\u2019s \u201cBig Amish\u201d nickname teammates bestowed upon him, they did not travel by horse and buggy.<\/p>\n

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A larger throng is expected this weekend at Baltimore\u2019s Camden Yards, where Kurtz attended countless games as a kid.<\/p>\n

Success came quickly then and, somehow, it\u2019s coming even faster now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say I\u2019m a little shocked, surprised,\u201d says Kurtz. \u201cI knew I was a good hitter, but having a really good rookie year is pretty cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s still two more months for Kurtz to expand what seems to be a limitless horizon.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Athletics’ Nick Kurtz making MLB history just a year after college<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Nick Kurtz\u2019s dominance has been so startlingly sudden, so consistent and enduring that it\u2019s challenging to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[495,505,5462,3959,464,35440,49,48,27437,35441,10391,1506,20076,35442,3962,20370,462,4012,35439,82,35438],"class_list":["post-52118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-athletics","tag-atlanta","tag-baltimore","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-brent-rooker","tag-bryan-abreu","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chase-burns","tag-christian-moore","tag-cincinnati","tag-houston-astros","tag-jacob-wilson","tag-josh-hader","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mark-kotsay","tag-mlb","tag-nick-kurtz","tag-shea-langeliers","tag-sports","tag-wake-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}