How A’s Top Prospect Nick Kurtz Swung His Way To The Edge Of An MLB Breakout
Image credit: Nick Kurtz (Photo by Bill Mitchell)
Mike Kinney was caught off guard as his son, Cooper Kinney, stood in the batter’s box during a Team USA tryout in Los Angeles, Calif. during the summer of 2015.
Taking the mound against Cooper, himself an eventual No. 34 draft pick by the Rays in 2021, stood a 6-foot lefthander who was garnering attention from Team USA coaches for his pitchability and high-velocity arsenal.
“Oh my gosh, is this how they all look?” Mike Kinney said.
As dominating as that 12-year-old pitcher was, over time, it turned out his biggest weapon wasn’t on the mound—it was in his swing. And once Nick Kurtz unlocked his full potential, the trajectory of his baseball path changed.
Nick Kurtz Tops First Hot Sheet Of 2025
The A’s first baseman slashed .412/.459/.882 with four home runs to nab the top spot of BA’s ranking of the 20 hottest prospects.
That day also was the beginning of a close bond between Kinney and Kurtz, the Athletics’ No. 4 overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft and Baseball America’s 33rd-ranked prospect. After years of Cooper and Kurtz playing alongside each other in the youth ranks, the two teamed up at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tenn., where Mike was the head coach.
Up until that point, Kurtz was still focusing on pitching. By his sophomore year, he was committed to Wake Forest as a pitcher. Still, he was no stranger to hitting. Kurtz played the field and had shown flashes of his power throughout the amateur circuit. It wouldn’t become a point of emphasis, however, until he enrolled at the Baylor School.
Mike Kinney’s philosophy for his team was that there were no one-dimensional players. So Kurtz was getting more familiar with the box than he was used to.
“Nick was always able to deliver his barrel better than everybody else,” Kinney said. “Sometimes he would deliver it too fast and get up over the top of balls. But you’re watching a kid take a swing, and it was just the end of his bat, it was that maximum speed when he crossed the plate.
“It was just a unique path that you now watch. He can hit the ball to all parts because he’s not having to over rotate, he just really makes his barrel go fast out over the plate, and it was something that stood out to all of us.”
It wasn’t just the Baylor School baseball community that took notice of Kurtz’s hitting abilities.
Tanner Vesely, a longtime coach with USA Baseball, also first saw Kurtz as a 12-year-old dominating on the mound. At the time, he pictured a future ace. And the evidence was there, most notably when Kurtz tossed a gem in the WBSC 12U World Cup win over Chinese Taipei at Taiwan’s Tainan Stadium in front of 11,000 fans.
But by the time Kurtz entered high school, Vesely could sense a shift.
“He took off [at Baylor School], and became a different human,” Vesely said. “The ball really started jumping. The plate discipline was really good. He just started hitting everything everywhere. It wasn’t just a one-dimensional type hitter.”
Kurtz decided in his junior year to become a full-time hitter. Kinney was fully on board. All that was left was to make a phone call to Wake Forest associate head coach Bill Cilento, who works mostly with hitters and infielders.
It’s still a phone call Kinney and Cilento chuckle about to this day.
“I said ‘Hey, you still going to keep Nick if he’s just a hitter?’” Kinney recalled. “[Cilento’s] question was, ‘Do you think he can hit it in the ACC?’ That’s the part we still laugh about. My answer was ‘100% he can.’ And then you look at what he did in college and the potential was always there. It was pretty phenomenal.”
Phenomenal is an understatement.
Kurtz went on to have one of the most storied careers Wake Forest has ever seen, becoming the highest-selected position player in program history and just the fourth Demon Deacon taken in the top 10 picks. He left campus with 61 homers, 182 RBIs and program’s career record for walks (189).
Kurtz didn’t miss a beat after being drafted by the A’s, as he played in five games at Low-A Stockton before a promotion to Double-A Midland. His season was cut short because of a hamstring injury, but his 2025 resume has shown there is no slowing down.
Kurtz has homered six times in 11 games to begin the season with Triple-A Las Vegas. Only Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber and A’s first baseman Tyler Soderstrom have as many homers across all of professional baseball. He is also slashing .375/.412/.854 with and 17 RBIs.
Those who were around him aren’t surprised Kurtz is stepping up to the occasion.
“You have guys that the lights get bright and they get better. Nick is one of them,” Vesely said. “No matter how high he goes, he’s going to keep doing well, because the pressure doesn’t faze him. He’s got a chance to be a superstar.”
Kurtz’s ability to meet the moment and thrive under pressure is part of what’s made his rise so impressive. But ask those who know him best, and they’ll tell you his greatest strength isn’t what he does between the lines—it’s who he is when no one’s watching.
“He is looking at you as a person and is concerned about you,” Kinney said. “He wants to do anything that he can to be helpful. He’s knocking at the door of the major leagues, but if I called him today, he would answer the phone and do anything that he could to help me.
“And that’s just how remarkable a person he is.”
