Happy Wednesday, Athletics Nation!
MLB has released its final 2025 Rookie of the Year poll, through which the league’s chosen panel of experts have suggested once again that the A’s have the two best rookies in the AL this season.
Unsurprisingly, A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz remains an overwhelming favorite to take the AL ROY award this year. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that “Big Amish” may as well be handed the trophy now. Kurtz is drawing comparisons to Aaron Judge, who has emerged as one of the game’s all-time great sluggers in recent years and has a ROY trophy of his own. It will take some time to validate such a lofty comp, but Kurtz is off to a convincing start.
Before his fellow infielder took the baseball world by storm, shortstop Jacob Wilson was the talk of the town with his frenetic presence at the plate and elite contact skills that have yielded results that are strikingly similar to Tony Gwynn at the beginning of his Hall of Fame career.
Wilson was batting .345 on the season at the beginning of June and seemed destined to take ROY honors before Kurtz began smashing every baseball pitched to him—and before Wilson’s bat cooled off somewhat, likely due to playing through injury. Jacob has hit around .340 since returning from the IL last month and has the second highest batting average in MLB on the season—behind Judge.
Kurtz was a near-unanimous pick in the poll, with just two of 41 panelists casting a first place vote not for Wilson, but for Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony, who finished third in the AL poll. Absent Kurtz (4.2 fWAR), both Anthony (2.7 fWAR) and Wilson (2.9 fWAR) would be worthy ROY candidates and it might be a tough pick between the two. But to say Anthony deserves to be ROY over Kurtz is tantamount to voting against inducting Ichiro Suzuki to the Hall of Fame. Get those two clowns off your “expert” panel, MLB!