The Athletics announced they’ve signed fourth overall pick Nick Kurtz. MLB.com’s Jim Callis reports (on X) that the former Wake Forest first baseman receives a $7MM bonus. That’s well shy of the approximate $8.37MM slot value, freeing up a decent chunk of money for Oakland to spend on their later picks.
Kurtz has been regarded as one of the best offensive players in the class for the last two years. The left-handed hitter reached base at an absurd .510 clip over his college career. He’s coming off a .306/.531/.763 slash line in his draft year. Kurtz walked at a massive 30% clip while striking out 16.2% of the time as a junior. He popped 22 home runs in 54 games.
Listed at 6’5″ and 240 pounds, Kurtz has obvious power potential. He’s an exceptionally patient hitter, although FanGraphs wrote in their pre-draft report that his approach borders on passive. FanGraphs ranked Kurtz as the #17 prospect in the class. Baseball America, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN and The Athletic’s Keith Law each had him in the back half of the top 10. The primary concern is in Kurtz’s limited defensive profile. While he’s a quality defender at first base, he’s already at the bottom of the defensive spectrum. The recent track record for highly-drafted college first basemen (i.e. Andrew Vaughn, Spencer Torkelson) hasn’t been great.
Well, Kurtz probably won’t have Olson’s defensive skills but that can grow in time. The A’s signed Kurtz for his offensive and not exactly for his defensiveness…
I think Olson left those defensive skills in Oakland when he got traded to Atlanta.
He’s about to pop 30+ HRs in 2026 with the short porch in Sacramento and hot weather.
Seriously though people could MASH in this park.
preview.redd.it/heres-how-the-field-of-the-athleti…
The horror. The horror.
Dang you beat me to it. Something about Dr. Kurtz and going for a boat ride up the creepy river….
His methods are unsound.
Under slot based on draft position, but he was over drafted based on ability. Purposeful. His signing bonus isn’t out of line based on where he should have been drafted. The A’s are looking to spread the money around. Problem is they really haven’t shown this is a strong skillset in the org the last few years.
I actually think the A’s have been drafting much better the last few years after the horrible decision to draft Kyler Murray in the first round.
A’s building a nice future Infield with Kurtz. Soderstrom, Gelof, Jacob Wilson, etc.
It’s hasn’t been uncommon for the A’s to draft lower position players willing to accept smaller signing bonuses. Fisher is going to need every penny if he’s going to prove he’s not a failure to his old prep school friends.
I’d rather have a kid who knows the strike zone and needs to get a little more aggressive than a free swinger.
IF he “knows the strike zone.” Sometimes kids walk a lot because they just decide before the pitch not to swing a lot. There’s a huge difference between patience and plate discipline. We’ll find out which Kurtz has.
“The recent track record for highly-drafted college first basemen (i.e. Andrew Vaughn, Spencer Torkelson) hasn’t been great.”
Geez, Torkelson hit 31 HR’s last year, at 24 he’s now washed up???
Even with those homeruns, he was barely worth more than a replacement player. In his career, he’s worth less than a replacement player.
Junk math aside, plenty of teams have had success stacking orders with players that hit for a lot of power, even if the other stats aren’t great.
So home runs are all that matters now? What about Batting Average? OBP? Home runs aren’t and shouldn’t be the end all be all on offense in baseball.
He’s going to get some broadcaster fired isn’t he.
Dude has been eating his Wheaties
Kurtz signing quite a bit below slot hopefully means they are signing guys later in the draft above slot to bypass college.
That’s why I never give much thought to the draft picks until after the signing period. We need to see the entire package.