The Athletics' young slugger Nick Kurtz bursted out of nowhere and has taken the league by storm. Nicknamed "The Big Amish," Kurtz has been the top dog in the A's surprisingly high-octane offense this year. He has tallied 32 home runs, 80 RBIs, and is currently batting .298 with an OPS of 1.020 in his maiden MLB campaign.
With his full dominance on display, Kurtz has made a believer among baseball fans, insiders, and even his own teammates. On the most recent episode of Dugout Discussions hosted by MLB insider Chris Rose, featuring Kurtz's teammate Lawrence Butler, the duo discussed and proclaimed their amazement of the young slugger's skills, especially his unparalleled power that can only be compared to one Shohei Ohtani.

"That's some Shohei Ohtani sh*t right there," said Rose about Kurtz's batting prowess. (20:13-20:15)
After Rose's remark, Butler professed his admiration for his teammate, who has impressed everyone in the clubhouse in just the first year in the league.
"He's a freak of nature," said Butler. "Have you seen him hit a ball backside? In person, it's like a righty pull. Perfect. He's going like 108 to 109 [in exit velocity]," he added. (19:55-20:14)
The Athletics' outfielder then claimed that Kurtz's four home run game was perhaps the best he's ever watched, alluding to the latter's historic game against the Astros on July 25, 2025. In the contest, Nick Kurtz smashed four long bombs, drove in eight runs, had six runs scored, and went six-for-six as he became just the 20th major leaguer in history to achieve four home runs in one contest.
"It's the best game I've ever seen in my life. He would have had five [home runs] but one hit Houston's wall [which was] so tall." (20:36-21:05)
The Athletics sweep postseason-hunting Reds in surprising result
The Athletics played massive spoiler to the postseason-contending Reds after a scoring a sweep in their most recent series. The A's, who have basically nothing to play for this year, trounced the Reds, setting the latter back further down the NL wild card hunt.
The closing game's theme pretty much illustrated how the series went for the respective sides as the Athletics fended off any mighty run that the Reds attempted. Nick Kurtz's squad were victorious in the closing matchup, 7-4, as he hit his 32nd home run of the year in Sunday afternoon's contest.
While the Athletics improved to 70-80 with just a dozen games left in the year, the Reds, on the other hand, fell to 74-75 and are 2.5 games away from the wild card spot. Terry Francona's squad will now have an uphill battle with games against the Cubs and the Brewers coming up.