Nick Kurtz Appears Unlikely To Return This Season

There’s a good chance that Nick Kurtz’s season is over. A’s manager Mark Kotsay tells Martín Gallegos of MLB.com that the first baseman’s right thumb will be immobilized throughout August after he received a platelet-rich plasma injection last week. “Four weeks of no mobility. You probably can do the timeline and think through the scenarios in front of us for Nick,” Kotsay acknowledged. Kurtz has battled thumb pain since at least the middle of July. He landed on the injured list with a thumb capsule sprain that shelved him from July 10-25. Kurtz returned for a seven-game stretch in which he had only one hit before the thumb shut him back down. Kurtz’s absence has been one of the reasons for the A’s melting down this summer. In the middle of June, they were .500 and within a half game in a wide open AL West. The A’s are a staggering 9-34 since then. While a terrible pitching staff has been the main problem, they have a punchless .233/.293/.373 team batting line since the beginning of July. Kurtz has taken 49 plate appearances in that time, hitting .114/.204/.250. The second-year first baseman went into July with a .276/.421/.516 slash. He was tied for 13th in the majors with 19 home runs and trailed only Yordan Alvarez in on-base percentage (minimum 200 plate appearances). Only six hitters had a better OPS. Even if this was a step back from Kurtz’s otherworldly rookie season, he’s among the ten best offensive players in the game at full health. The A’s are platooning Jeff McNeil and rookie Tommy White at first base. Donovan Walton is at the keystone when McNeil plays first. There’s not much for the A’s to learn from that arrangement. McNeil is an impending free agent who is unlikely to be back next year. Walton is a 32-year-old utility player on his fifth team. White will probably remain on the roster into 2027, but he’s a mid-tier prospect who’ll need a significantly more disciplined approach than he has shown in his first 21 career games. View Comments (2)