A's find hope in Nick Kurtz and young stars as team eyes Las Vegas in 2028

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Even Athletics veterans walk around the clubhouse wearing “Nick Kurtz goes yard” T-shirts, and they know what he means for the franchise's future.

Kurtz, who recently had one of the greatest individual performances in big-league history, is the odds-on favorite to be AL Rookie of the Year. He's hardly the only talented youngster giving A's fans — wherever they might be — reason to feel optimistic about the team's on-field direction.

The A's are in transition in more ways than one. Most notably, the club is playing the first of what's expected to be three seasons in Sacramento — a temporary, minor league home for the former Oakland franchise until a new stadium is scheduled to be ready in Las Vegas for 2028.

The roster is shaping up to be a dynamic and competitive one when they arrive. Kurtz is the headliner, but teammate Jacob Wilson was the second favorite for top rookie before going on the injured list last week with a broken left forearm. Lawrence Butler, an electric outfield defender with pop and speed, also looks like a centerpiece for the type of team the A's want to take to Las Vegas.

The club added 18-year-old shortstop Leo De Vries on Thursday as part of a multiplayer trade with San Diego that sent out closer Mason Miller and his 101-mph fastball. MLB.com rates De Vries as baseball's No. 3 prospect.

Also on the roster — and under contract through at least 2028 — is All-Star designated hitter Brent Rooker. Kurtz, Wilson and catcher Shea Langeliers are among the starters who could be under team control with the planned moved to Las Vegas. That core isn't translating into wins yet — the team is 49-65 this season, worst in the AL West — largely because the team's pitching lags behind.

“We certainly want to win in present day and ‘26 and ’27 are important to us, but a lot of our internal conversations are about what the team will look like in 2028 when we get to Las Vegas,” A's general manager David Forst said. “You can see it some of the contracts we signed, starting obviously with the manager (Mark Kotsay), but also with Rooker and Lawrence, making sure that two of our key guys are locked up into our time in Vegas.”

Whether management keeps the team together is a question. The A's have a history of trading young players on the verge of landing lucrative contracts and keeping their payroll among the lowest in baseball.

Maybe that changes with the anticipated move to Las Vegas, given owner John Fisher might want to bring a competitive team to the market. The A's, in fact, opened up the wallet this year and signed Rooker to a $60 million, five-year contract and a $65.5 million, seven-year deal with Butler.

“I feel like we're headed in the right direction,” Butler said. “We've got a lot of young players. When a team calls up young players, they might not be ready, but I feel like all our guys are ready. They've shown that they can compete at this level.”

Butler, 25, is part of a clubhouse filled with promising 20-somethings.

“In this locker room, I am kind of the old man,” the 30-year-old Rooker said. “I don't know if I take them under my wing. These guys are better players than I am. They don't need the help.”

Kurtz and Wilson were battling it out for the AL's top first-year player award, and maybe that competition will continue if and when Wilson — the first fan-elected rookie shortstop to the All-Star Game — returns to the lineup.

Kurtz has done his best to make it a one-man race. He became the first rookie to hit four home runs in a game and tied the major-league record with 19 total bases by going 6 for 6 with eight RBIs on July 25 at Houston.

His performance has earned him AL player of the month, AL rookie of the month and consecutive player of the week honors. He led the majors in multiple categories in July, including batting average (.395), on-base percentage (.480) and slugging percentage (.953). The 22-year-old already has shown a knack for delivering in key moments with seven game-winning RBIs and five go-ahead homers.

“It's the moment you dream about as a kid,” Kurtz said. “You're in a spot where you can end the game with a walk-off or take the lead. Baseball's so hard. You're supposed to get out. I come through here, it's freakin' awesome. I think I just aim to be calm and I trust my process.”

Kotsay said before the trade deadline that for all the young hitting talent, the A's could use help with their pitching.

The A's then added three pitching prospects in the Miller trade and another in right-hander Kenya Huggins when Miguel Andujar was sent to Cincinnati. They have 25-year-old Jack Perkins, called up Luis Morales on Friday and have Gage Jump in their minor-league system. The A's also selected Florida State left-hander Jamie Arnold 11th overall in this year's draft.

“Where we've struggled this year is pitching, both rotation and bullpen,” Forst said. “When we've had success on the mound, that's when we've put some good little stretches together.”

Outside of a horrendous stint when the A's lost 20 of 21 games, they have been largely competitive. That includes a current run of seven wins in 10 games.

“In terms of our vision, in terms of putting a group together that we can win with, I think that talent especially on the players position side is just showing itself," Kotsay said recently. "(They are) continuing to make improvements and continuing to show what our priorities are, which is playing the game at an elite level and becoming a team that goes out and competes every night.”

The A's signed Kotsay to an extension in February that takes him through 2028 with an option for 2029. He has had to navigate a club that experienced the fan anger in Oakland toward management for its impending move and now playing in Sacramento.

“I think (Kotsay's) got one of the tougher jobs in baseball right now in the sense of trying to get the buy-in from the players,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s so much uncertainty with the ballpark and where they’re going to be. I think he’s done a fantastic job. He’s a lifelong A, so he understands the culture of the organization. ... He’s the perfect guy for that organization.”

AP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

Athletics' Brent Rooker (25) is congratulated by manager Mark Kotsay, right, after hitting a sacrifice fly that scored a run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Scott Marshall)

Athletics' 2025 first-round pick Jamie Arnold throws out a ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Monday, July 28, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Scott Marshall)

Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson throws to first for an out after fielding a ground ball by Houston Astros' Cooper Hummel during the fifth inning of a baseball game Friday, July 25, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Athletics' Nick Kurtz celebrates after hitting a three-run home run, his fourth home run of the game, against the Houston Astros during the ninth inning of a baseball game Friday, July 25, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Athletics' Nick Kurtz (16) and Lawrence Butler celebrate after a baseball game against the Houston Astros Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Duke had just played with its best start-to-finish level of competitive fight in an opening month gone awry, only to end up with another loss to a top-flight opponent in No. 5 LSU.

Senior guard Ashlon Jackson was clinging to the idea that the struggles could pay off in the long term.

“We're in the mud right now,” Jackson said softly.

She might as well have been talking for the entire Atlantic Coast Conference in women's basketball.

The preseason ACC favorite Blue Devils are 3-6. The league has no top-10 teams in the AP Top 25 poll in a season for the first time in nearly a quarter-century. And it wrapped up a 13-3 loss in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Thursday night, including all three matchups involving its ranked teams in No. 11 North Carolina, No. 18 Notre Dame and No. 22 Louisville.

Of that trio, the Cardinals nearly upset No. 3 South Carolina, losing 79-77 at home.

“I know we have good players in our leagues, we have good teams,” Duke coach Kara Lawson said after Thursday night's 93-77 loss to LSU. “For (Duke), we haven't had the start that we've wanted. It's our job to change it.”

This isn't the position anyone expected for the ACC, which had a different team reach the Final Four in 2022, 2023 and 2024 while the Blue Devils reached last year's NCAA Elite Eight after winning their first ACC Tournament title since 2013. The league opened this year with five AP Top 25 teams, headlined by the North Carolina-based “Triangle” schools of Duke at No. 7, N.C. State at No. 9 and UNC at No. 11.

And the ACC had fielded at least one top-10 team in every AP Top 25 poll dating to December 2001, a run of 453 consecutive polls.

Yet that streak streak ended by mid-November, leaving the Tar Heels — who lost 79-64 at No. 2 Texas on Thursday night — as the league's highest-ranked team for three straight weeks from outside the top 10.

The Blue Devils opened with a loss to Baylor in Paris, followed shortly after by a loss to West Virginia in which the Mountaineers finished with just five players due to numerous ejections to knock the Blue Devils out of the AP poll. The Wolfpack, who lost Wednesday in overtime at No. 9 Oklahoma, fell out this week in a season that included a home loss to unranked Rhode Island.

“I feel like we're a better team than people think, I feel like our league's better,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said before the Texas game. "You could say, 'Well there's a couple of results that don't show that.' ... I always say: `Let's see when it's all said and done, who's advanced (in the NCAAs), how many teams did you send to each round, and what that looks like.'

“As someone who has lived in the ACC now with these coaches and players, we'll be just fine. The league will be just fine.”

Maybe so. But the trajectory of the annual SEC tussle is heading in the wrong direction: from the teams splitting 14 games in 2023 to the SEC winning 10-6 last year and now this year.

“13-3 SEC? I'm glad we're one of the 13,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said about the Duke win, adding later: “We didn't have to have an ACC Challenge to figure out how tough our league is.”

The Blue Devils' plight in Durham has stood out in particular among the ACC's opening-month hiccups.

They entered having lost three straight games, the past two coming in blowouts to No. 3 South Carolina and No. 4 UCLA. And they faced the unenviable test of slowing LSU's offense, which had scored 100+ points in each of its first eight games to set an NCAA record.

Duke started the game on a 14-1 run as LSU sputtered, only to see the Tigers began to kick into gear once they stopped committing turnovers. A 31-point second quarter helped push LSU into control, with LSU shooting 59.7% for the game, leading by 21 points and vocally celebrating through the final minutes on the Blue Devils' Cameron Indoor Stadium homecourt.

Now Duke heads to Virginia Tech on Sunday to open league play, a first step toward getting its season back on course.

“I think we can grow into a really good team," Lawson said. "That's what we're focused on doing. I haven't watched the other ACC teams to be able to tell you, but I would venture to say that a lot of them can grow into really good teams, too.”

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

Louisville forward Anaya Hardy (9) attempts to block a shot-attempt by South Carolina center Madina Okot (11) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Louisville, Ky., Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)