Nick Kurtz is your 2025 American League Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year! pic.twitter.com/vzz0uIaidS
— MLB (@MLB) November 11, 2025
Nick Kurtz was drafted 4th overall, last year.
The 4th player selected in the 2024 MLB Draft is the 2025 MLB Rookie of the Year.
Back in my day, a first baseman had to travel in tight, crowded school buses, up and down the East Coast—battling Mud Hens and River Dogs—until the front office saw their hairlines receding, before they ever sniffed a Major League AB.
Kurtz only played 33 minor league games.
Total.
33 minor league games and called up to the Athletics at age 22 and now, with all 30 first place votes—the 2025 AL Rookie of the Year.
He recorded his first career hit in his first career game—an RBI single.
He didn’t hit his first homer until his 17th game.
Then this happened on July 25th:
NICK KURTZ FOUR HOME RUNS IN ONE GAME! 🤯
First rookie in MLB history with four home runs in a single game! 💪 pic.twitter.com/Xip6UyFo0K
— ESPN (@espn) July 26, 2025
Nick Kurtz hit 4 home runs in a game. He typed the record with 19 total bases on the total day, going 6-for-6, the best game of the year until Shohei Ohtani singlehandedly drove the Milwaukee Brewers to the airport in Game 4 of the NLCS.
Here’s what his whole 2025 campaign looked like:
- 122 hits
- 36 homers
- 86 RBIs
- 90 runs
- .290 batting average
- 1.002 OPS
- 173 OPS+
I pray Nick Kurtz (as well as AL Rookie of the Year runner-up, Jacob Wilson), remain on the Athletics long enough—through the next two seasons in Sacramento—to see what this franchise becomes when they’re under the Las Vegas lights, genuinely trying to win baseball games in their new, expensive as hell stadium.
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