The Las Vegas A’s may have to finish the 2026 season without one of their most important young players. First baseman Nick Kurtz is dealing with a significant right thumb injury, and the latest update from manager Mark Kotsay suggests there is a real possibility his season is over.
Kotsay told MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos that Kurtz’s thumb will be immobilized throughout August after the young star received a platelet-rich plasma injection last week.
Kurtz Could Be Done for the Season
Kotsay acknowledged that Kurtz will have four weeks without mobility in the thumb, making a return before the end of the regular season increasingly difficult.
The injury has been an ongoing problem for Kurtz since at least the middle of July. He initially landed on the injured list with a thumb capsule sprain and missed time from July 10-25.
Kurtz returned for seven games but managed just one hit before the issue forced him back out of action.
That’s particularly frustrating for the Las Vegas A’s because Kurtz had established himself as one of baseball’s most dangerous young hitters.
A Huge Loss for the Las Vegas A’s
Kurtz entered July hitting .276/.421/.516 and had already crushed 19 home runs, which ranked tied for 13th in MLB. His .421 on-base percentage trailed only Yordan Alvarez among players with at least 200 plate appearances, while only six hitters had a better OPS.
Unfortunately, his absence has coincided with an enormous collapse by the Las Vegas A’s.
The A’s were .500 in the middle of June and within a half-game of the AL West lead in what was a wide-open division. Since then, they’ve gone an astonishing 9-34.
Pitching has been the primary problem, but the offense has also fallen apart. Since the beginning of July, the Las Vegas A’s have hit just .233/.293/.373 as a team.
Kurtz has been part of that struggle when he’s played, going .114/.204/.250 in 49 plate appearances during that span.
At full strength, however, Kurtz is one of the game’s elite offensive players. If the Las Vegas A’s are forced to go the rest of the season without him, it would be another brutal blow to a team that has already watched its season completely unravel.
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