It will come as no surprise to A’s Nation readers that the Athletics have two of the the three finalists for the Jackie Robinson American League Rookie-of-the-Year Award. On Monday night, MLB announced that Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson are both finalists for this year’s award. They are joined by Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony. All three candidates entered the league with a splash.
Entering the season, Anthony was ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 overall prospect. The only question mark was when
would he be called up to the bigs. That happened in June, but he was already chasing our shortstop Wilson who started the season on fire. His early season was far from under the radar and he was the first rookie shortstop to be voted in by fans as a starter for the MLB All-Star Game. Quite a feat.
The case for both Wilson and Anthony were quieted some by injuries. The Red Sox star’s season ended early with an oblique strain, and Wilson missed significant time with a broken bone in his forearm. Despite his injury, Wilson chased Aaron Judge for the batting title until the very end of the season, finishing tied for second with a .311 average. But the odds-on-favorite for the award this year is Nick Kurtz. When all was said and done, in just 117 games, he led all MLB rookies in homers (36), RBIs (86), extra-base hits (64), runs (90), slugging percentage (.619) and OPS (1.002). Who could forget his July 25th explosion of power in Houston when he went six-for-six launching four homers. no other rookie in baseball history has accomplished that.
The Rookie-of-the-Year Award will be announced on November 10, 2025 on MLB Network, with the award show beginning at 4 P.M. PST.
Hall of Fame Contemporary Baseball Era Ballot Announced
On Monday the Era Committee of the MLB Hall of Fame (HoF) announced its nominees for this year’s Contemporary Baseball Era player ballot. These are players who have made their mark in baseball history since 1980 but have fallen off the ballot and were no longer eligible in the traditional voting. This list is controversial in many ways, the least of which is not the players originally snubbed due to steroid use/allegations. In all of my years of discussions on Bonds and Clemens specifically, I don’t think anyone is neutral or ambivalent. It’s either they absolutely belong in the Hall or “over my dead body” would I ever vote for him.
Let’s not forget two of the most popular players of their time, Don Mattingly and Dale Murphy; both the faces of their franchises during their careers. Both players were team leaders as well as top tier players but could not garner sufficient support to make the hall during their eligibility period. Mattingly remains so beloved that baseball fans this year were rooting for the Blue Jays to win the World Series JUST so that “Donnie Baseball” could finally get his ring. A case could be made for all of these players but to me the biggest surprise was Fernando Valenzuela. Forgive my ignorance, but I thought he was already in! Sadly, Valenzuela died just prior to the 2024 World Series, but the rest of the players are around to be aware of the honor of nomination and possible admission to the Hall. Below is the list of eight nominees with links to their MLB Bio/Stat pages. But as we know, stats alone will not get any of these fine players into the HoF!
- Barry Bonds
- Roger Clemens
- Carlos Delgado
- Jeff Kent
- Don Mattingly
- Dale Murphy
- Gary Sheffield
- Fernando Valenzuela
Candidates need to receive votes on 75% of the ballots cast by the 16-member committee to become part of the 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame Class. The members of the committee will be announced later this fall, and the voting results will be announced live on MLB Network at 7:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 7.
A’s Coverage:
- Important Dates for the A’s this offseason
- Kuroda-Grauer (No. 10 prospect) among A’s Arizona Fall League standouts
- Everything you need to know about the A’s offseason plans
- Could the World Series’ most unlikeliest hero be the A’a answer at third base?
- Which Athletic could be next in line for an extension?
- A’s 2026 Season Schedule
MLB News and Interest:
- All of the 2025-2026 free agents, position by position
- Dodgers early favorite for championship for 2026
- Blue Jays’ Ernie Clement makes postseason history with record 30 hits
- Max Scherzer intends to play in 2026
- Right-handed Chris Bassitt interested in returning to Blue Jays
- Renowned pitching coach Mike Maddux leaves Rangers, joins Angels coaching staff
- The 2025-2026 offseason officially begins
- Today in baseball history
