A's Trying to Secure Big Piece of Future with Early Extension Offer to Nick Kurtz

The Athletics are trying to change the narrative that has plagued them since John Fisher took over ownership of the franchise more than two decades ago, by finally extending key pieces of the franchise's core group of players while they look forward to playing in their planned Las Vegas ballpark in 2028.

On Thursday, Joel Sherman of the NY Post tweeted out "The A’s have made a long-term extension offer to AL ROY Nick Kurtz, according to 2 sources. I received no word on the likelihood of getting it to the finish line. The A’s over the last year have done pre-arbitration extensions already with Butler, Soderstrom, Wilson."

The A's haven't been shy about their desire to get Kurtz signed to a long-term deal. Lawrence Butler briefly commented in an interview on A's Cast about wanting Kurtz to sign on long-term, and manager Mark Kotsay, when asked about the possibility by Foul Territory, said, "there's an opportunity and a chance, for sure."

Last month when Kurtz himself was asked about signing on with the A's long-term, he said that an extension isn't really the focus right now. "If we win games, everyone's going to get paid. That's the biggest thing for me. Let's put it out on the field, and then we'll deal with everything else later." As we said at the time, this doesn't sound like someone looking to sign an extension in the near-term.

He's also represented by Excel Sports Management, which is an agency without a huge history of pre-arbitration extensions, which could make getting a deal done a little bit harder for the Athletics.

One way the A's would be able to grease the wheels to get a deal done would be to have a high base salary (we projected him for eight years and between $140-160 million earlier this winter), with added incentives baked into the deal, like in Soderstrom's contract.

The A's have been active in signing core guys long-term, but they have played it somewhat safe in terms of the size of these deals. In order to sign Kurtz, they may have to get outside of their comfort zone.

Two reasons why an extension doesn't make sense for Kurtz just yet

There is no denying that Nick Kurtz is a special player. He burst onto the scene last year, batting .290 with a .383 OBP and a 170 wRC+, making him one of the best bats in baseball at the age of 22. He added 36 home runs, drove in 86 RBI, and was putting up an OPS that only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani touched last year.

That said, there is still room for him to grow into a more complete player, and if he makes those jumps in his game, any extension would be heavily team-friendly very quickly.

One facet of his game that needed some work this offseason was his glove, which he's been working on. He finished with a +2 defensive runs saved, but -6 outs above average. If he's league average or better defensively moving forward, that just adds to Kurtz's value.

The other, and more tangible area of improvement would be how he fared against left-handed pitching. While he completely crushed righties, he batted just .197 against left-handers with a .261 OBP and an 83 wRC+. By comparison, he hit .336 with a .439 OBP and a 211 wRC+ against right-handers.

If he turns into a league average or better hitter against left-handers, then he's a completely different bat in the A's lineup, and that would shoot his value through the roof. At the point, it would almost be unwise to cap his potential earning power so early into his playing career.

Of course, we don't know just yet what the offer to Kurtz was from the A's. If they were in the ballpark we mentioned earlier this winter, it's tough to see a deal getting done at this time. If they added some incentives to increase the value, they may be talking.

If they backed up a Brinks truck and made him a forever A's player with a 15-year deal and the money that would make that length of a contract worthwhile, then he may not be able to turn them down.