The A’s have signed a number of extensions over the past two seasons. Brent Rooker, Lawrence Butler, Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom are all locked in as long-term lineup pieces in advance of the 2028 move to Las Vegas. The A’s have also opened extension conversations with Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers.
The latter two players would be the most difficult to extend. Langeliers is into his arbitration window. Kurtz is coming off an otherworldly rookie season and would require the A’s to shatter their franchise record contract (Soderstrom’s $82MM guarantee).
Joel Sherman of The New York Post reported last month that the A’s made Kurtz an official offer. Details of the proposal weren’t known at the time. The Post’s Jon Heyman wrote last night that the offer was well into nine figures, adding that it’s believed to have landed in the $130MM range. Kurtz evidently declined and Heyman characterizes an extension as a long shot.
[Related: What Would It Cost The A’s To Continue Their Extension Run?]
Despite being called up in late April, Kurtz earned a full year of service time with last season’s Rookie of the Year win. The A’s have him under club control through 2030. He’s two years away from his first major salary jump via arbitration. However, Kurtz should already be well positioned financially. The A’s paid him a $7MM signing bonus as the fourth overall pick in 2024. He also made almost $1.3MM last offseason via the pre-arbitration bonus pool, which rewards the best performers who have yet to accrue the service time to qualify for arbitration.
There have been five nine-figure extensions for players with less than two years of MLB service. The guarantees on those deals range from Corbin Carroll’s $111MM to $210MM for Julio Rodríguez — though the latter’s contract was loaded with escalators and options that could take it close to half a billion dollars in certain situations. The other players to get to nine figures within their first two years as a big leaguer were Wander Franco ($182MM), Jackson Merrill ($135MM) and Roman Anthony ($130MM).
Kurtz would be unique among that group as a first baseman. Rodríguez, Merrill and Franco all played up-the-middle positions. Anthony and Carroll are primarily corner players but are superior athletes and provide more defensive and baserunning value. The biggest extension for a pre-arbitration first baseman is Anthony Rizzo’s $41MM deal from more than a decade ago. That’s useless as a comparison point for Kurtz, so he’s a difficult player to value.
There’s little doubt Kurtz will continue to mash. He hit .290/.383/.619 with 36 home runs over his first 489 plate appearances. His exit velocities are near the top of the league. Although it comes with a fair amount of whiffs, Kurtz has the kind of rare power that should allow him to be an offensive force even if he’s striking out 30% of the time.
It’s not all that surprising if an offer in the $130MM range wouldn’t get it done. Anthony landed that amount of money less than two months into his MLB career and without a full year of service, which put him a year further away from free agency. Anthony was the superior prospect, but Kurtz’s camp could point to the service time difference and the bigger body of work at the MLB level. It’s also notable that Kurtz is represented by an agency (Excel Sports Management) that has almost no history of pre-arbitration extensions.
At the same time, it’s hardly a lowball offer on the team’s part. They were evidently willing to make Kurtz the highest-paid player in franchise history by a wide margin while valuing him similarly to other young superstar hitters despite the lack of positional value.
Kurtz simply has a lot of leverage if he’s inclined to bet on himself remaining a top 10 hitter in MLB. The upside of going year by year could resemble the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. path of racking up arbitration earnings and setting himself up for a monster deal at or near free agency. Kurtz is on track to hit the open market at 28. Guerrero’s $500MM extension with the Blue Jays begins this year, his age-27 season. Anything close to that kind of money would very likely price Kurtz out of the A’s range someday, but the team has plenty of time before concerning itself with that possibility.
130M is too low and not shocked Kurtz said no especially if it was buying out any potential free agent years. I hope that was just and opening offer and they plan to counter with something higher. I’d offer 200M but I’d want a third year covered in that offer.
Low because Anthony got that without a full season and a ROY, yeah. Wonder if he hits .220 this year what that number looks like next year. I might have signed for 130M. 1B that hits .220 even with 40HRs doesn’t get 130M extensions. But .290 40 does
They’ll be looking at his OBP and power numbers, not his batting average.
A lot of players face a sophomore slump. If it was me, i would be all over 9 figures and 5 years. Beyond 5 years pass.
But no chance the Athletics offer that. Two years are control years. They could have him for $1M each. Even at a round $100M, that would be like $20M, $30M, and $48M for seasons 4-5-6.
Kurtz is a 1B only player. He shouldn’t get anywhere near Carroll or Anthony.
I think Kurtz is awesome, and there is a good chance he regresses this year. If not he was smart! Is so he might regret the decision.
Either way I love to see people who believe in themselves.
Would be nice to see them extend most of their current young players but maybe also move some of them in a few years to add quality players from other organizations. They just have better luck when acquiring hitters instead of pitchers in those kind of trades.
“Kurtz evidently declined and Heyman characterizes an extension as a long shot.”
The horror! The horror!
Kurtz is nothing but an errand boy sent by grocery clerks…to collect a bill.
Curious, how much are their numbers inflated playing in a bandbox? Everyone hits better in PCL.
Home OPS 1.042 w 22 HRs
Road OPS .967 w 14 HRs
30.8% HR/FB is very high. Over the past two seasons, only 11 players have over 20% and only 5 over 22%.
Maybe overrated? But really exciting bat.
His park-adjusted 170 wRC+ ranked fourth in the league behind Judge, Ohtani, and Vladdy.
I don’t watch the A’s much. I appreciate the feedback. A’s have some solid hitters in that lineup.
If you want to have some fun, add De Vries to the list. He’s probably easier to deal with right now. He looks really solid with a huge ceiling. If they sign him now, they don’t have to play the service time game, and fill a huge IF hole.
That mf need to ask for Showy Ohtawny money $$$$