The unanimous selection for the Jackie Robinson American League Rookie-of-the-Year, announced this afternoon at the MLB network Headquarters in New York City was the Athletics Nick Kurtz. This was no real surprise as he was the odds-on favorite to win. He is the 14th player to win the AL award by a unanimous vote Finishing in second place was also an A’s standout, Shortstop Jacob Wilson. That’s no surprise either as at different stages of the season both looked like the award was theirs. Kurtz was rewarded for putting together one of the best rookie performances in MLB history. He debuted for the A’s on April 23 and, and in 117 games, he posted a .290/.383/.619 slash line with 36 home runs. He led all MLB rookies in homers, RBIs (86), runs scored (90), OPS (1.002), OPS+ (173) and wins above replacement (4.6 per FanGraphs, 5.4 per Baseball Reference). Kurtz has already taken home the hardware for the silver slugger award.

Kurtz is the ninth player in Athletics history to win the honor, joining Andrew Bailey (2009), Huston Street (2005), Bobby Crosby (2004), Ben Grieve (1998), Walt Weiss (1988), Mark McGwire (1987), Jose Canseco (1986) and Harry Byrd (1952, when they were in Philadelphia). The A’s are the ninth team in MLB history to have players finish 1-2 in the voting.

One new component that Athletics management did not have to deal with when previous A’s won the award is the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) clause that awards Kurtz a full year of service retroactively for finishing in the top two of ROY voting. This was ratified in the previous CBA to discourage service time manipulation. The flip side to this clause may give the A’s an additional draft pick for Wilson actually qualifying for a full year of service and finishing second in this year’s voting. Kurtz will now qualify for free agency after the the 2030 season rather than the 2031 season. By then let’s hope the A’s have the vision to wrap him up in a long-term deal.

Later in the broadcast, Atlanta Braves backstop Drake Baldwin was named National League Rookie-of-the-Year. He beat out Cubs pitcher Cade Horton and Brewers infielder Caleb Durbin. The NL voting was significantly closer, not unanimous like the AL vote.

Here’s the schedule for the 2025 Baseball Writers’ Association of America awards set to be announced this week on MLB Network (4 p.m. PT each day):