WEST SACRAMENTO -- Around this time last year, Nick Kurtz was taking classes as a junior at Wake Forest. One year later, he found himself at Sutter Health Park preparing for his Major League debut.
To describe Kurtz¡¯s path to the big leagues as a fast track would be an understatement. Drafted fourth overall by the Athletics in the 2024 MLB Draft, Kurtz -- ranked as the club¡¯s No. 1 prospect and the No. 35 overall prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline -- reached the big leagues just nine months after beginning his professional career, barely 32 Minor League games under his belt. So, you can understand the disbelief when he groggily answered a phone call from Triple-A Las Vegas manager Fran Riordan on Monday morning informing him of his callup.
"I was half-asleep, so I still thought it was a little bit of a dream,¡± Kurtz said. ¡°But it¡¯s pretty awesome to be here.¡±
That dream turned to reality on in Wednesday's 5-2 win over the Rangers. In what was one of the more anticipated debuts for an A¡¯s prospect in quite some time, Kurtz donned a white No. 16 Athletics uniform for the first time in the Majors, and it didn¡¯t take long for him to make an impact. The 22-year-old first baseman clubbed an RBI single off Rangers starter Kumar Rocker in the first inning for his first Major League hit in his first at-bat.
Kurtz is considered to have an advanced approach at the plate that led to his off-the-charts offensive metrics throughout his domination of the Minor Leagues, and that showed through in his first hit as he tagged the 1-2 96 mph fastball from Rocker past a diving Marcus Semien and into right field at an exit velocity of 112.2 mph. Kurtz¡¯s helmet came flying off his head as he took a turn around first base before excitedly high-fiving first-base coach Bobby Crosby and soaking in a standing ovation from the Sutter Health Park crowd.