First baseman Nick Kurtz of the Athletics and catcher Drake Baldwin of the Atlanta Braves have been selected the 2025 Baseball Digest / TDH Creative American and National League Rookies of the Year.
This is the 54th season (since 1972) that Baseball Digest has presented AL and NL Rookie of the Year awards. The selections were made by the independently submitted votes of an 11-member panel of baseball writers and broadcasters, including the six contributors who provided Baseball Digest’s 2025 division previews.
Kurtz was a unanimous selection in the American League, receiving all 11 first-place votes while his A’s teammate Jacob Wilson got nine second-place votes and one third-place vote. In the National League, Baldwin grabbed seven first-place votes and four second-place votes while Cade Horton of the Chicago Cubs got four first-place votes and seven second-place votes.
Nick Kurtz led major-league rookies in 2025 in home runs (36), RBI (86), runs scored (90), walks (63) and extra-base hits (64). The Athletics’ first round selection in the 2024 First-Year Player Draft, he became the youngest player in MLB history — at 22 years, 135 days old — and the only rookie to hit four home runs in one game on July 25, 2025 at Houston’s Daikin Park. Kurtz was three years younger than Pat Seerey, who was 25 years, 123 days old when he homered four times on July 18, 1948 for the Chicago White Sox. He is the fifth Athletics player to be named AL Rookie of the Year by Baseball Digest, joining Jose Canseco (1986), Mark McGwire (1987), Ben Grieve (1998) and Bobby Crosby (2004).
Drake Baldwin ranked first in RBI (80), second in home runs (19) and total bases (190) and third in extra-base hits (39) among NL rookies in 2025. He was the first Braves position player to start his MLB debut on Opening Day since Tyler Pastornicky opened at shortstop in 2012 and the only Braves player to do so as a catcher in Atlanta franchise history (since 1966). The last Braves catcher to start on Opening Day in his major-league debut was Ebba St. Claire on April 17, 1951 for the Boston Braves against the New York Giants. Baldwin is the seventh Braves player to be named NL Rookie of the Year by Baseball Digest, joining Craig McMurtry (1983), David Justice (1990), Rafael Furcal (2000), Craig Kimbrel (2011), Ronald Acuna Jr. (2018) and Michael Harris II (2022).
