Nick Kurtz: Up-And-Coming Dynasty Player

The 2024 MLB draft may go down as one of the most productive drafts in recent memory.

Why? Well, five players drafted in the first round – Chase Burns, Jac Caglianone, Christian Moore, Cam Smith, and Nick Kurtz –  have already made their way to the majors.

Burns, the only pitcher in that group, made his debut earlier this week for the Reds, allowing three runs in five innings while striking out eight against the Yankees. Caglianone has struggled with the Royals, slashing .186/.240/.314 with two homers and four RBI in his 19 games.

Moore has only been in the big leagues for two weeks and is slashing .175/.227/.450 but has three homers and six RBI. Smith broke camp with the Astros and has been a mainstay in right field all season, and is slashing .271/.343/.402 with five homers and 28 RBI this season.

Then there is Kurtz. He entered the season as the 34th ranked prospect by Baseball America, 38th by MLB, and 33rd by Baseball Prospectus. Maybe those rankings were too low, because all he has done since joining the A’s in April is mash the ball and prove why he is an up-and-coming dynasty player.

Career Statistics

Road to the Show

As is the case with many top hitting prospects, they seem to not only be good hitters but were top pitchers as well. Nick Kurtz was recruited by Wake Forest as a pitcher. But his bat continued to progress in high school, and by the time he left Baylor School in Chattanooga, he helped lead the team to back-to-back Division II 2-A titles as both a pitcher and hitter.

At Wake Forest, his bat was what carried him to becoming the fourth overall pick in last summer’s draft by the Athletics. Once signed and in the system, it didn’t take long for Kurtz to prove why he was selected so high. In 12 games covering 50 plate appearances and 38 at-bats at Class A and AA, he hit four homers and drove in 13 runs while slashing .368/.520/.763.

That showing led the A’s to basically start him at Triple-A (he spent one game at Class A Stockton) Las Vegas, the future home of the Athletics. In only 20 games, he slashed .321/.385/.655 with seven home runs and 24 RBI. There was nothing left to prove, and he was promoted to the majors and made his MLB debut on April 23.

The Tools

• Hit

Nick Kurtz has always shown the ability to hit the ball. During his three-year career at Wake Forest, he had a .333 batting average. In only 33 minor league games, he hit .344. So I think Kurtz has shown, historically, that he can hit for average.

So far through his first 42 games with the Athletics, he is hitting .255. But that takes into account the entire season. In seven games in April, he slashed .250/.240/.250. Uh oh, another high draft pick who is going to be a bust! Not so fast, my friends. Getting his feet under him, he slashed .243/.337/.514 in May, and this month he has been even better, slashing .273/.310/.655.

Kurtz generates outstanding bat speed, coming in at 77.7 mph. The average in the majors is 71.6 mph. And Kurtz puts that bat speed to good use as he has a 15.2 Barrel% (MLB average is 7.1%) and his average exit velocity is 91.9 mph (average is 88.5).

The one glitch he is still having is against left-handed pitchers. Against Southpaws, he only has a .158/.205/.263 slash line with one home run and six RBI. However, that one home run was a walk-off homer against Josh Hader. Putting that blast aside, he has a 37% strikeout rate against left-handers with only three walks (6.8% walk rate) and two extra base hits in 44 plate appearances.

Against right-handers, he has .288/.352/.613 slash line with 10 homers and 22 RBI. His strikeout rate is 32%, so still really high, but he has 9% walk rate and 15 extra base hits in 122 plate appearances. And his kryptonite right now is breaking balls and offspeed pitches. Against the breaking ball, he has a .205 average and .455 SLG with 18 strikeouts in 52 plate appearances (34.6% strikeout rate).

• Power

You want Nick Kurtz on your team because of home runs like this, and this, and this. Look at all three of those homers, and they all went to different parts of the ballpark. Not only does Kurtz have great raw power – raw power that shows up in games, mind you – but he uses that power to all fields. So far this season, he has pulled the ball 29% of the time, gone up the middle 49.% of the time, and hit to the opposite field 21% of the time.

Not bad for a 22-year-old trying to learn on the fly at the major league level.

He doesn’t try to yank every pitch to right field, selling out for his power. His bat speed and strength allow him to pull inside pitches to right, launch pitches over the heart of the plate to center, or drive pitches on the outside corner to left. While he does strike out a lot, he is able to cover the entire plate and punish the pitches he is supposed to. This has allowed him to have an ISO of .268 (MLB average is .153), and his home run rate of 6.6% blows the MLB average of 2.9% out of the water.

• Speed

Speed? What Speed? You are not wanting to have Kurtz on your roster because of any steals he may provide.

Sure, he stole 11 bases (in 11 tries) while in college, but that was in college, when you are not quite going against major league catchers and facing pitchers who actually (sometimes) try to hold runners on base. So far in his professional career Kurtz has 1 stolen base, and that was last year in the minors. In the majors, he is 0-for-1 trying to steal.

The Verdict

Nick Kurtz is an imposing figure in the box as he is 6-foot-5, 240 pounds, and he uses his size and strength to his advantage. All he has done at Wake Forest, and no matter where he has played as a professional, is hit and hit with power.

Despite already having Tyler Soderstrom at first base, the A’s selected Kurtz, and the move is proving to be a correct one. Kurtz has forced Soderstrom to left field as he has taken over at first, and there is no reason to think he won’t be there for years to come.

At the plate, Kurtz currently has a 162-game average of 42 homers and 108 RBI, and those numbers may be spot on by the time the season ends. For at least the rest of this season and the following two, Kurtz gets to play in a minor league that appears to be a huge boon to the hitters, at least when it comes to Kurtz so far. In home games, he is slashing .288/.359/.625 with eight homers and 20 RBI in 23 games. In 19 road games, those numbers are .217/.257/.406 with three home runs and eight RBI.

But that is a small sample size right now, and over the course of a season and his career, Kurtz’s power will be on full display no matter where he plays.

Despite the fact that he his crushing the ball, Kurtz is available in 51% of Yahoo leagues and in an amazingly low 21% of ESPN leagues. That is really not logical. If he is available as a free agent in your league or is on the trading block, go and get him. Now.

Thanks for reading, and come back again next week.