Two of the A's Top Prospects Removed from Spring Game
The Athletics have escaped most of spring training without much in the way of injuries, which is the goal of every MLB team during this time of year. That changed a little bit on Saturday.
First No. 3 prospect, outfielder Colby Thomas, was drilled by a line drive off the bat of Brent Rooker while at third base and was forced to leave the game with the help of a team trainer. That was in the bottom of the sixth.
Leading off the bottom of the seventh, first baseman and No. 2 prospect Nick Kurtz was hit on the hand with a 94 mile per hour fastball. He too would exit the game.
The good news, as Martín Gallegos of MLB.com reported, is that the X-Rays on both Thomas and Kurtz were negative, and Thomas was seen walking around the clubhouse. A's manager Mark Kotsay expects both top prospects to be sore for the next few days.
While neither player has been expected to break camp with the club, each is penciled in as a potential depth option for 2025 at their respective positions. Thomas is closer to the big-leagues, given that he has been in pro ball the past two seasons and has reached Triple-A already. While there isn't room on the roster for him quite yet, the A's may look to slot him into left field at some point this year.
Kurtz on the other hand was the No. 4 overall selection in last year's MLB Draft, and this will be his first full professional season in the big leagues. Since being drafted, he has shown everyone why the A's took him.
In seven games in A Ball with the Stockton Ports, Kurtz hit .400 with a .571 OBP and four home runs, leading to him skipping High-A Lansing and catapulting straight to Double-A Midland. He played in all of five games at the level, batting .308 with a .400 OBP in 13 at-bats, before a hamstring injury ended his season early.
He made a return to the diamond during the Arizona Fall League, hitting .353 with a .450 OBP in 13 games, while adding a pair of homers. This spring he's gone 5-for-20 (.250) with a .464 on-base, one homer, and has walked (7) more times than he has struck out (4). For someone with just a handful of games under his belt since coming out of college, that's pretty impressive.
The belief is that he'll start the year back in Midland, just to get him going, but he could follow a similar path to the one that A's shortstop Jacob Wilson laid down last year.
He began the year with the RockHounds, then was up in Las Vegas with the Aviators by early May. A week later he missed about a month due to injury, but came back swinging, and earned his call-up right after the All-Star game.
The biggest impediment to Kurtz following a similar path in 2025 could be that the A's seem to have first base fairly settled at the moment, with another former first rounder, Tyler Soderstrom, slotted in as the regular at the position.
That said, the A's won't hesitate to call up Kurtz when they believe he's ready. The big question will be what happens to Soderstrom's playing time, and where it comes from, once Kurtz is in West Sacramento.
Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.