Take a bow, Big Amish.
Star Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz won the 2025 AL Rookie of the Year award in a unanimous decision, MLB announced Monday.
Kurtz, the ninth Rookie of the Year in Athletics franchise history and first since pitcher Andrew Bailey in 2009, beat out his A’s teammate, shortstop Jacob Wilson, and Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony for the award.
Kurtz, whom the Athletics selected with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, absolutely raked over his first 117 big-league games after being the sixth-fastest player to reach the majors in franchise history following his promotion from Triple-A Las Vegas on April 23.
The Lancaster, Pennsylvania native and Wake Forest product led all rookies with 36 home runs, 86 RBI and a 5.4 WAR while slashing .290/.383/.619 with a 1.002 OPS and 63 walks. Kurtz, too, led all first basemen in OPS while joining Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge as the lone players with at least 400 plate appearances to finish with an OPS over 1.000.
Kurtz hit several monster homers this year, including a 493-foot grand slam and some walk-offs. But the performance that solidified the 22-year-old’s rookie-of-the-year status came on July 25 in the A’s 15-3 win over the Houston Astros at Dalkin Park.
Then, he became the first rookie to hit four homers in one game en route to finishing with 19 total bases, eight RBI and six hits.
The only true competition Kurtz faced for AL Rookie of the Year was, ironically, his own A’s teammate: shortstop Jacob Wilson.
Wilson led all rookies with 174 hits and slashed .301/.348/.424 over 153 games. He tied with Bo Bichette for MLB’s second-best batting average in baseball behind Judge (.331).
Kurtz, meanwhile, earned other rookie-of-the-year nods from Baseball America and The Sporting News. He also earned the AL Silver Slugger Award for his position and was named the AL’s “Most Outstanding Rookie” by the MLB Players Association.
But the actual AL Rookie of the Year award? That is the formal bow on Kurtz’s stellar introduction to the majors.