The Athletics have extended an offer to the first baseman Nick Kurtzreports Joel Sherman of the New York Post. No details of the offer have been reported and it is unclear how likely the two sides are to reach an agreement.
OA has been busy expanding in recent years. It appears that there are dual motivations at play, connected to their continuous travel from Oakland to Las Vegas, with a stop in West Sacramento in between. They reportedly wanted to increase their spending to avoid an appeal from the MLBPA, so they wouldn’t risk losing their money-sharing status during the move. Also, it seems the club wants to have some exciting and consistent youth to help them build a fan base when they arrive in Vegas, which is currently slated for Opening Day 2028.
Around this time last year, they got two extensions done. They signed an outfielder/designated hitter Brent Rooker on a five-year, $60MM deal, then inked Lawrence Butler in a seven-year, $65.5MM deal. They continued down that road this season. It was reported on Christmas Day that they had agreed to a seven-year, $86MM deal with the outfielder Tyler Soderstrom. That was followed by a seven-year, $70MM deal for the shortstop Jacob Wilson about a month ago.
Kurtz is another logical target. He just made his debut last year at the age of 22. His 30.9% strikeout rate was high but he drew walks at a solid 12.9% clip and hit 36 home runs in just 489 plate appearances. He was the unanimous choice for the American League Rookie of the Year, although he was not called up until late April.
Despite missing half of the season, Kurtz was re-awarded a full year of service time for that award, as part of the prospective incentive rules. That means the A’s currently control him for five more seasons instead of six. He will enter his age 23 season and is scheduled to be granted free agency after his age 27 season.
If the A’s want to sign him for longer than that, it makes sense to do it sooner rather than later. Players generally gain more earning power as they approach free agency. A record guarantee for a player with one year of service time or less is the same Julio Rodríguezwho earned $210MM from the Mariners. For boys with two years of service, Fernando Tatis Jr. got $340MM too Bobby Witt Jr. earned $288.8MM. For boys who have entered their middle ages, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has a record at $500MM.
That doesn’t mean doing something now will be easy, as MLBTR’s Anthony Franco explored earlier this month in a Front Office subscriber post. First, Kurtz is represented by Excel Sports Management, an agency with a poorer track record of early expansion than Boras Corporation.
Kurtz also shouldn’t be desperate for cash in the short term. He received a $7MM signing bonus after being drafted fourth overall in 2024. He would have added nearly $2MM in 2025. The league minimum salary was $760K last year and Kurtz earned just under $1.3MM in the pre-arbitration bonus pool.
Considering those factors, along with Kurtz’s pedigree and rookie season, Franco concluded that it would likely take $150MM or more to lock Kurtz up now. He’s in a similar position to Rodríguez when he signed his $210MM deal with Seattle, although Rodríguez had more earning potential as a solid defensive center fielder, while Kurtz is further down the defensive spectrum as a first baseman. The $150MM range would exceed Kurtz Roman AnthonyThe former had only a few months of major league experience and was one year closer to free agency than Kurtz when he signed his $130MM deal.
Reaching that mark would require the A’s to double their franchise record, currently held by Soderstrom’s $86MM deal. Long term letters are not completely clean, as the four extensions mentioned above are. However, none of these deals have an annual average value of even $13MM. Salaries increase over time but there are no guaranteed seasons to reach $20MM.
If the A’s wait, they risk Kurtz continuing to work, which will slowly make his leadoff power closer to Guerrero. Even if they can’t make a deal, they can control Kurtz until 2030. If they open in Vegas in 2028 as planned, they could still have Kurtz for their first three campaigns in their new home.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
