Amateur career
Kurtz played for the USA 12U National Team and won a gold medal at the 2015 World Cup. [1] He spent his freshman year at Manheim Township High School,before transferring to the Baylor School in Chattanooga,Tennessee. [2] [3] Alongside baseball,he competed in basketball. He lettered all four years in baseball and three years in basketball. [4] He committed to Wake Forest University to play college baseball during his sophomore year at Baylor. [5]
As a freshman at Wake Forest in 2022,Kurtz was named a freshman All-American after hitting .338/.471/.637 with 15 home runs and 56 runs batted in (RBI) over 204 at-bats in 54 games. As a sophomore in 2023,he hit .353/.527/.784 with 24 home runs and 69 RBI over 190 at-bats in 56 games [6] [7] and was named a first team All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association. [4] As a junior in 2024,Kurtz was named team captain [4] and slashed .306/.531/.763 with 22 home runs and 57 RBI. [8] Kurtz left Wake Forest as the program's all-time leader in walks (189). [4]
Professional career
Kurtz was a top prospect entering the 2024 Major League Baseball draft; [9] [10] the Oakland Athletics selected him in the first round,with the fourth overall selection. [11] On July 22,2024,Kurtz signed with Oakland on a contract worth $7 million. [12] [13] He split his first professional season between the Single-A Stockton Ports and Double-A Midland RockHounds. Kurtz was assigned to the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators to begin the 2025 season.
On April 21,2025,Kurtz was promoted to the major leagues for the first time,after just 32 total games in the minor leagues. [14] He made his MLB debut two days later against the Texas Rangers,where he went 1-for-4 with an RBI single. [15] On May 13,Kurtz hit his first career home run off of J. P. Feyereisen of the Los Angeles Dodgers. [16] On June 16,Kurtz hit a two-run walk-off home run off Bryan Abreu of the Houston Astros to give the A's a 3–1 victory. It was the first walk-off home run of Kurtz’s Major League career,at a Statcast-projected 447-foot,making it the longest walk-off homer by an A’s player since Statcast began tracking in 2015. [17]
On July 25,2025,Kurtz became the first rookie in MLB history and the first Athletics player to hit four home runs in a game,overall getting six hits in six ABs for the game. The other two hits were a double and a single,thus tying Shawn Green's 23-year-old MLB record for total bases in a game with 19. The home runs came off of four different Houston Astros pitchers,including position player Cooper Hummel,in a 15–3 Athletics victory. [18] [19] Kurtz was named the American League Player of the Month for July after hitting .395/.480/.953 for the month,with 24 runs,11 home runs,and 27 RBIs. He was the first Athletic to win Player of the Month since Josh Donaldson in September 2013. [20] On September 13th,Kurtz hit a 493 foot grand slam off of Scott Barlow of the Cincinnati Reds which is both the longest homer ever by an Athletics hitter since Statcast was introduced in 2015 and tied with the longest homer in 2 years with Shohei Ohtani. [21]
Personal life
Kurtz was born on March 12,2003,to Marie and Jeff Kurtz. He has two brothers and one sister;his older brother Logan played collegiate baseball at Penn State Berks from 2012 to 2013. [4] His father works in real estate. [22] Kurtz's parents enrolled him in tee-ball when he was four years old. [23] [24]
While on the Athletics,his teammates gave Kurtz the nickname "Big Amish",a jocular reference to his stature at 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m),240 lb (110 kg) and his hometown of Lancaster,Pennsylvania,which has a large Amish community. After a home run,Kurtz began celebrating by twirling his hands in a circular motion,in homage to the Amish tradition of churning butter. [25] [26] Kurtz himself is not Amish.
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