A's top Draft pick breezing through Minors

This story was excerpted from Martín Gallegos’ A’s Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The fast track to the big leagues is officially on for Nick Kurtz.

After beginning his professional career with Single-A Stockton earlier this month and thoroughly dominating California League pitching to the tune of a .400/.571/.960 slash line with four home runs, two doubles and 12 RBIs through his first seven games, Kurtz -- the No. 4 overall pick by the A’s in the 2024 MLB Draft -- has been promoted to Double-A Midland. He is expected to debut with the Rockhounds on Tuesday night against Wichita.

Upon drafting Kurtz -- rated Oakland’s No. 2 prospect and the No. 45 overall prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline -- back in July, A’s scouting director Eric Kubota compared the Wake Forest first baseman to former A’s and current Braves first baseman Matt Olson for his combination of power, an overall advanced approach at the plate and quality defense.

While speaking during his segment on A’s Cast on Monday, A’s general manager David Forst again brought up Olson’s name when discussing how Kurtz’s superiority at Single-A left the club no choice but to move him up the system.

“He was effectively like cosplaying Matt Olson in A-ball,” Forst said of Kurtz. “It just wasn’t great for his development. We wanted to challenge him.”

With four weeks left in the Minor League regular season and Midland in contention for the playoffs, the A’s want to give Kurtz the experience of competing in big games down the stretch. The 21-year-old will move into an everyday role at first base for the Rockhounds, while Brennan Milone, Oakland’s No. 24 prospect who is having a solid season there, will shift to more of a DH role.

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“Nick goes in there with a spot to play,” Forst said. “We’ll put him in the middle of the order. Milone can move around. It just made sense. ... Double-A has a little more left of their season than [High-A] Lansing does, plus they’ve got a chance at a playoff spot. He could potentially play another five weeks there. It just made sense on a lot of levels.”

Kurtz was one of four 2024 A’s Draft picks assigned to Single-A Stockton to begin their pro careers, joined by second-rounder Tommy White, third-rounder Joshua Kuroda-Grauer and fourth-rounder Rodney Green. Forst expressed his excitement over how each player has been performing at the level and revealed that Davis Diaz, Oakland’s eighth-round pick in the 2024 Draft out of Vanderbilt, will also join Stockton later this week.

“All these guys have kind of hit the ground running,” Forst said. “It’s been a really nice debut for just about everybody in the Draft class. ... We feel like our system is in a much better place than it was a year ago and two years ago.”