Nick Kurtz: BA's Rookie Of The Year

Plus: Kemp Alderman's powerful season continues.

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Kemp Alderman, OF, Marlins: For most players, the end of September means some rest and reprieve is on the way after a long year. But Marlins outfielder Kemp Alderman likely wishes the season could keep going. At the very least, the powerful outfielder ensured at least one more game, as he blasted another homer as part of a 2-for-4 day on Wednesday for the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, who beat Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 6-4 to force a winner-takes-all game three of the Triple-A International League championship series, even despite a six-walk outing from top prospect Thomas White. Alderman has homered eight times in 22 games since his promotion to Triple-A and is slashing .294/.330/.671 over that stretch, albeit with 29 strikeouts to just five walks. He's been a steady presence in our weekly Statcast Standouts series, which you can find here and here.

Zach Levenson, OF, Cardinals: After hitting .196/.354/.337 over the first 55 games of the season, Levenson turned a corner in the second half. Over the final 53 games, he hit .293/.382/.466 as he successfully made the jump to Double-A. Levenson came up clutch on Wednesday for Double-A Springfield as he went 4-for-5 with a walk, as the Cardinals won the Texas League championship. A fifth-rounder in 2023 out of Miami, the second half of the 2025 season is the best stretch of Levenson's professional career to date.

Jack Wenninger, RHP, Mets: When Binghamton needed a big start this season it consistently looked to Wenninger. Fittingly, Wenninger spun a gem in the winner-takes-all game three of the Double-A Eastern League championship. Over five innings, the righthander allowed two runs on three hits and two walks, as he struck out 11. Wenninger held off the Erie offense, and D’Andre Smith, Chris Suero and Jacob Reimer provided the runs. Wenninger caps off a breakout season with a memorable performance in a league championship game.

Roki Sasaki, RHP, Dodgers: It’s been the worst-case scenario season for Sasaki in 2025. After struggling in his first taste of the majors, Roki dealt with injury and a rocky run with Triple-A Oklahoma City. On Wednesday, he took his first step back when he returned to the Dodgers in a relief role. Sasaki pitched one inning following starter Blake Snell, striking out two allowing no hits, no runs and no walks. This was the first time Sasaki had pitched in a major league game since May 9.

Nick Kurtz Wins MLB Rookie Of The Year

Nick Kurtz gave A’s fans a glimpse of the future in 2025, becoming the first rookie ever to hit four home runs in a game and capping one of the best debut seasons in MLB history. The Baseball America Rookie of the Year slashed .291/.384/.613 with 33 homers, ranking among legends on rookie OPS leaderboards. For a franchise in transition, Kurtz has already emerged as the cornerstone of the organization’s next chapter. As such, Kurtz was the clear choice.

You can preorder your issue here, which also includes other BA awards, MiLB Players of the Year for every org, the top newcomer classes in college baseball, and plenty more.

Check out the link below to read our full feature on Kurtz.

Editor’s Picks

MiLB Players By Age: J.J. Cooper sorts 2025 MiLB players into three distinct age groups to see which orgs were fielding the most and least old and young players. Read more…

ABS Benefits? We look at called-strike data to see which MLB hitters and pitchers might be happy to see the ABS challenge system next year. Read more…

MiLB Attendance: While overall attendance is down, a late surge helped MiLB surpass 30 million fans once again. Read more…

MLB Attendance: See which big league teams added and lost the most fans in 2025. Read more…

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