MESA, Ariz. — As he did for most of the final stretch of a historic American League Rookie of the Year campaign last season, Nick Kurtz found himself batting leadoff for the Athletics in his Cactus League debut.
Could this be a signal that Kurtz will be stepping into the box first for the A’s when they open up the regular season in Toronto on March 27?
It’s too early in Spring Training to look deeply into a starting lineup construction. Still, it’s hard to imagine the A’s Opening Day lineup looking much different from Sunday’s 6-0 loss to the Guardians at Hohokam Stadium. In fact, the top five hitters were more often than not in the same order at the end of 2025:
“The guys that are in there today, obviously, we know that they’re going to be a part of that group on Opening Day,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “In terms of order, we’ve seen this lineup before with the top five guys.”
Kotsay specified that the lineup is not “set in stone” and that the prevailing reason for batting Kurtz and Langeliers in the first two spots is mostly about getting them as many at-bats early on in spring games before substituting them out.
As far as “Leadoff Kurtz” being a thing again in 2026, Kotsay implied that he likes the idea of having the 22-year-old slugger bat first.
“My opinion, getting the best hitter on the team the most amount of at-bats is productive,” Kotsay said. “Especially when that at-bat comes around the 18th through the 21st out of a game when a starter is going through a lineup a third time, it’s nice to get those guys an opportunity. It presents a leverage situation.
“But the way our first five hitters performed last season, we all know that we don’t steal bases, Nick is both someone who has an on-base percentage and a slug to sit at the top of the order and provide both. I think there’s some value to that.”
A quick glance at Kurtz’s splits from last season show he was most productive when batting second or third in the lineup as opposed to leadoff:
Batting first: .242/.413/.403 (.816 OPS) with two home runs and four RBIs in 18 games
Batting second: .377/.484/.736 (1.220 OPS) with five homers and 14 RBIs in 14 games
Batting third: .304/.380/.696 (1.076 OPS) with 11 homers and 23 RBIs in 31 games
Kurtz certainly profiles as a prototypical masher somewhere in the middle of a lineup. Nowadays, however, it’s not considered that unconventional to bat your best hitter – which Kurtz certainly is for the A’s – first. Some examples of other top hitters around MLB batting leadoff are Shohei Ohtani with the Dodgers and Kyle Schwarber with the Phillies.
Kurtz views himself as a third or fourth hitter in a lineup. Whatever spot he eventually settles into, however, is not something he’s spent too much time thinking about this spring.
“I believe I’m a middle-of-the-order bat,” Kurtz said. “If they want to bat me first, that’s cool. If they want to bat me last, that’s fine. I’ll see what I can do from wherever I’m at. The only thing about it is, you hit in that spot just the first time through the lineup. After that, it’s different every time. Whatever spot they think I need to be in, I’m good with it.”
Given that opposing pitchers are likely going to be pitching him a lot more carefully this year now that the word is out on his elite bat, Kurtz might actually be best suited batting at the start of the game when pitchers generally tend to pitch more aggressively with early strikes.
“If you hit first, you might get a fastball first pitch,” Kurtz said with a laugh. “So, I like that. But pitchers are so good with their scouting reports now. They might pitch [another leadoff] guy way differently than they’re going to pitch you. I don’t mind either way.”
