{"id":30925,"date":"2025-04-28T11:45:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T10:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/?p=30925"},"modified":"2025-04-28T11:45:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T10:45:03","slug":"nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Nick Kurtz rise to the Major Leagues has been nothing short of meteoric. Just one year ago, he was a junior at Wake Forest, and now, after being drafted fourth overall by the Athletics in the 2024 MLB Draft, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/player\/701762\">Kurtz<\/a> has already made his MLB debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 22-year-old first baseman, ranked as the A&#8217;s No. 1 prospect and No. 35 overall by MLB Pipeline, was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas just nine months after starting his professional career, with fewer than 32 Minor League games played. Still groggy from the phone call that informed him of his call-up, Kurtz said, \u201cI was half-asleep, so I still thought it was a little bit of a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kurtz\u2019s dream became reality in Wednesday\u2019s 5-2 victory over the Rangers. In his first Major League at-bat, Kurtz wasted no time making an impact, delivering an RBI single off Rangers starter Kumar Rocker in the first inning, marking his first hit at the big league level.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His teammate, Lawrence Butler, was full of praise, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s a big league at-bat right there. 112 mph up the middle from a big guy. He\u2019s going to be a great player.\u201d Kurtz&#8217;s debut performance solidified the excitement surrounding his future in Oakland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nick Kurtz rise to the Major Leagues has been nothing short of meteoric. Just one year ago, he was a junior at Wake Forest, and now, after being drafted fourth overall by the Athletics in the 2024 MLB Draft, Kurtz has already made his MLB debut.\u00a0 The 22-year-old first baseman, ranked as the A&#8217;s No. 1 prospect and No. 35 overall by MLB Pipeline, was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas just nine months after starting his professional career, with fewer than 32 Minor League games played. Still groggy from the phone call that informed him of his call-up, Kurtz said, \u201cI was half-asleep, so I still thought it was a little bit of a dream.\u201d Kurtz\u2019s dream became reality in Wednesday\u2019s 5-2 victory over the Rangers. In his first Major League at-bat, Kurtz wasted no time making an impact, delivering an RBI single off Rangers starter Kumar Rocker in the first inning, marking his first hit at the big league level.&nbsp; His teammate, Lawrence Butler, was full of praise, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s a big league at-bat right there. 112 mph up the middle from a big guy. He\u2019s going to be a great player.\u201d Kurtz&#8217;s debut performance solidified the excitement surrounding his future in Oakland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,3,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-sport-football-news","category-basketball","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut - Matchplug Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nick Kurtz was a junior at Wake Forest, and now, after being drafted fourth overall by the Athletics in the 2024 MLB Draft.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut - Matchplug Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nick Kurtz was a junior at Wake Forest, and now, after being drafted fourth overall by the Athletics in the 2024 MLB Draft.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Matchplug Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-28T10:45:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-28T10:45:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-28T10:45:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-28T10:45:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/\"},\"wordCount\":213,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"American Sport\",\"Basketball\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/\",\"name\":\"Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut - Matchplug Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-28T10:45:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-28T10:45:03+00:00\",\"description\":\"Nick Kurtz was a junior at Wake Forest, and now, after being drafted fourth overall by the Athletics in the 2024 MLB Draft.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png\",\"width\":700,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Matchplug Blog\",\"description\":\"Matchplug is the best soccer prediction site connecting bettors with winning tips. We are spot on in our Soccer predictions, premier league predictions, Bet9ja prediction, matched betting and premier betting.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Matchplug Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cropped-mp_logo_2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cropped-mp_logo_2.png\",\"width\":389,\"height\":218,\"caption\":\"Matchplug Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut - Matchplug Blog","description":"Nick Kurtz was a junior at Wake Forest, and now, after being drafted fourth overall by the Athletics in the 2024 MLB Draft.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut - Matchplug Blog","og_description":"Nick Kurtz was a junior at Wake Forest, and now, after being drafted fourth overall by the Athletics in the 2024 MLB Draft.","og_url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/","og_site_name":"Matchplug Blog","article_published_time":"2025-04-28T10:45:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-28T10:45:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut","datePublished":"2025-04-28T10:45:02+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-28T10:45:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/"},"wordCount":213,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png","articleSection":["American Sport","Basketball","News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/","name":"Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut - Matchplug Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png","datePublished":"2025-04-28T10:45:02+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-28T10:45:03+00:00","description":"Nick Kurtz was a junior at Wake Forest, and now, after being drafted fourth overall by the Athletics in the 2024 MLB Draft.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png","width":700,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nick Kurtz Makes Major League Debut"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/","name":"Matchplug Blog","description":"Matchplug is the best soccer prediction site connecting bettors with winning tips. We are spot on in our Soccer predictions, premier league predictions, Bet9ja prediction, matched betting and premier betting.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Matchplug Blog","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cropped-mp_logo_2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cropped-mp_logo_2.png","width":389,"height":218,"caption":"Matchplug Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/author\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/nick-kurtz-makes-major-league-debut.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31079,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30925\/revisions\/31079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}