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MLB Notebook: Nick Kurtz's quiet elite season, baseballs are flying farther again, and more

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Welcome to a new column I’m doing this season, where I take a bi-weekly look around Major League Baseball to fill you in on the league-wide trends, surging teams, and top individual performances. There will be some highlight clips, some criticisms, and some personal analysis of where I think the game is at and/or going. I hope that, if you’ve had a busy week or haven’t been able to watch as many games as you’d like, this article can be a great way to keep up with what’s happening in Major League Baseball.

So, let’s stop wasting time and dive right in.

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Is the Baseball Changing Again?

For years, there has been ongoing speculation that Major League Baseball will alter the baseballs in a given season, or during a stretch of the season, to try to control offensive production. Back in 2019, we had the year of the "Super Happy Fun Ball," where the league averaged 4.83 runs per game, the most since 2006, and 1.39 home runs per game, the most ever by a considerable margin. We know after that, in 2021, that the league, which owns the ball maker, loosened the wool windings on the ball to reduce bounciness and cause the ball not to travel as far. The next season, the league averaged the fewest runs per game in seven years and the fewest home runs per game over the same span.

Well, it seems that there may be a change happening this year as well. Early on in the season, it appeared that drag on the baseball, caused by the wind catching the raised seams of the ball in flight and slowing the ball down, was worse than it had been in a way. Far more deep flyballs turned into outs, and many of the offensive numbers were very pitcher-friendly. However, as Sean Zerillo pointed out on Twitter, the average distance of a barreled ball has increased by +10.2 ft from April 2026 to now, which is the biggest in-season April to June jump of the Statcast era. The average jump, which is common when the weather warms, has been 4.6 ft. Sean found out that the additional ~6 feet of distance on a barreled baseball this June also aligns with an approximately 0.016 point drop in the drag. That's something that Eno Sarris noticed as well.

If the drag on the ball is lower, that means the ball's flight is impeded less by air, which allows the ball to travel farther. Since the data seems to suggest a change occurred in the middle of May, I looked at the league-wide stats from the beginning of the season until May 15th and then compared that to the stats from May 15th onward:

AVGSLGISOHR/GMHR/PAHR/FBMarch 25th - May 14th .240.389.148.071.02810.8%May 15th - June 24th .247.413.166.084.03312.3%

Now, it would be logical to say, "Warmer weather makes the ball travel farther, so this is just because it's getting warmer." However, the offensive production increase appears to be true even after accounting for the weather:

The league will never admit that anything is different, but perhaps the numbers don't lie. We could be in for another offensive explosion this summer.

Hitting for the Cycle...or Not?

Hitting for the cycle (a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game) is a rare feat for an MLB hitter. There have been 350 instances of a player hitting for the cycle in MLB history, with Curry Foley being the first to do it in 1982. It's only happened once in postseason history, when the Red Sox's Brock Holt hit for the cycle against the Yankees in the 2018 American League Division Series. Only four players in history have ever done it twice in a single season: John Reilly (1884), Tip O'Neill (1887), Babe Herman (1931), and Aaron Hill (2012, and only four players have done it in each of the last three seasons.

Yet, just last week, we had two players hit for the cycle when Pete Crow-Armstrong accomplished it against the Rockies on June 15th, and then Bryce Harper did it on June 20th against the Mets. Only, there has been a bit of controversy surrounding Bryce Harper's 5th inning triple, which gave him the cycle.

As you can see in the video, on Harper's triple, he has just rounded second base when Mets shortstop Zack Short cuts off the throw from the left fielder. Had Short thrown to third base, Harper would have been out by about 10 feet. Instead, Short throws home to try to catch Kyle Schwarber at the plate. That allows Harper to advance to third, and the official scorer (the game was in Philadelphia) awarded Harper a triple instead of a double, and advancing to third on the throw.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter. Harper goes down as the latest player to hit for the cycle, but, for a brief moment, we had some controversy to go along with it.

Nick Kurtz’s Quiet Historic Season

Maybe it's because he plays his games on the West Coast, or because he got off to a slow start to the season, but Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz has not been in the news much for a player who's having the season he's having. This year, Kurtz ranks second in wRC+ behind Yordan Alvarez and is slashing .290/.439/.556 with 19 home runs, 56 runs scored, 61 RBI, and seven steals in 77 games. He's 4th in the league in hard-hit rate, 4th in average exit velocity, and 8th in barrel rate. Yet, he's fourth among AL first basemen in All-Star voting and is not discussed among the stars of the season, like Jacob Misiorowski, Shohei Ohtani, Ben Rice, and others.

Part of that could be that he plays in a minor league park in Sacramento, where his games start at 9:40 pm ET. It could also be because, heading into May, Kurtz was hitting .236/.417/.418 with five home runs, 18 runs scored, 15 RBI, and three steals with a 32% strikeout rate. However, even during that relatively cold stretch, Kurtz was heading towards a milestone. Beginning on April 4th, Kurtz put together a league-leading 48-game single-season on-base streak that was eventually ended on May 26, 2026. That streak tied Mark McGwire (1996) for the longest single-season on-base streak in A's history and also tied Albert Pujols (2001) for the 5th-longest single-season streak by a player aged 23 or younger since 1900. During the 48-game stretch, Kurtz posted an elite .308/.462/.523 slash line with eight home runs, 32 runs scored, 37 RBI, 53 hits, and 48 walks.

After that streak was snapped, Kurtz built a 22-game on-base streak, which ended on Tuesday night. But getting on base is not the only thing he's doing well. After clubbing a home run on June 21st, his ninth of the month, Kurtz became the seventh-quickest player to ever hit 55 career home runs, joining some incredible names. Whether it's the on-base streaks or the power production, it's been a tremendous all-around season for a 23-year-old in his second MLB season, and it needs more attention.

Individual Player Spotlights

Hitter Spotlight: Dillon Dingler - C, Tigers

One of the benefits of this spot in the article is to highlight some individual players who are not getting as much attention. So far this season, Dingler leads all catchers in wRC+ and WAR. In fact, his 3.6 WAR is fifth in all of baseball. He's also hitting .272/.339/.545 with 18 home runs, 41 runs scored, and 56 RBI. Those numbers put him 6th in baseball and tied for 12th in home runs, among all position players, not just catchers. Yet, Dingler is also a really strong defensive catcher. He's averaging seven Blocks Above Average, which is 97th percentile, has a 7 Framing Value, which is 100th percentile, and has an average pop time to second base of 1.88 seconds, which is 88th percentile. There's a strong argument that he is the best all-around catcher in baseball right now.

Starting Pitcher Spotlight: Foster Griffin - Nationals

Four years ago, Foster Griffin posted an 8.53 ERA in 6 1/3 MLB innings as an up-and-down reliever for the Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays. He had success in the minor leagues but couldn't translate that to the big league level. He was cut by two different organizations and decided it was time to try something new. After spending three years overseas pitching in Japan, Griffin returned to the States this season on a relatively overlooked one-year, $5.5 million contract with the Nationals. Yet, the 30-year-old has been far and away the best pitcher on the team, posting a 3.15 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and 89/23 K/BB ratio in 91.1 innings.

As Spencer Nusbaum pointed out in a great article at The Athletic, Griffin's time in Japan made him better because it forced him to change as a pitcher and become more analytical. On nights when he didn’t pitch, Griffin was allowed to go home to be with his family. Once his kids were asleep, "he’d put the game on TV and watch with his notepad out." By the time he was done playing in Japan, he had a "binder that nearly burst at the seams" filled with notes on hitter tendencies and attack plans and much more. In Japan, Griffin learned that all of the pitchers in Nippon Professional Baseball study tendencies, read swings, and game their sequences out to successfully beat the contact-oriented lineups that fill the league.

That meant Griffin had to change who he was as a pitcher: “Lefties would just stand on top of the plate and take me the other way, and that was starting to get me really angry.” The anger was because Griffin only threw pitches that moved away from those lefties, so he added the sinker to attack them inside. When he discovered that none of his pitches were getting enough swings and misses, he added a sweeper. Then, when hitters stopped chasing that out of the zone, he added a splitter. Without the velocity to overpower hitters, Griffin had to become a pitcher who could outsmart them. “I’m at the point in my career where I’m done trying to chase velocity,” Griffin said. “We’re at the point now where it’s just kind of fun to find out what you’ve got, then go out and compete.”

Relief Pitcher Spotlight: Elvis Alvarado - Athletics

Sometimes it just clicks for a player. Elvis Alvarado is an imposing presence on the mound at 6'6" and has a triple-digit fastball, but that didn't lead to much success early on. Alvarado has battled command issues in the past and then posted an 8.38 ERA in his first 10 appearances this season before being sent to Triple-A. Since being recalled on June 6th, he looks like a different pitcher and, even after a poor last outing, has a 2.70 ERA and 47% strikeout rate in 10 innings.

This is a little bit like what happened last year when he posted a 7.50 ERA in four appearances, got sent to the minors, and then came back and registered a 2.48 ERA with 42 strikeouts over his final 36.1 innings. Yet, this version of him feels different. Since Alvarado has returned, he has showcased better command of his four-seamer but also has been able to get ahead in the count with his slider and sinker. He's started to use his slider more as an early-count called strike pitch in addition to a whiff pitch, which has given his pitch mix another dimension that he didn't have last year.

Alvarado may only have two saves since being recalled, but he has the third-lowest SIERA among qualified relievers at 0.67 and has the best K-BB% at 47.1%. Yes, that's better than Mason Mille's 45.5% mark in June. Perhaps the A's should also give Alvarado a long leash in the ninth-inning role as well.

Individual Stat Leaders (6/1 - 6/24)

Hits

  1. Pete Crow-Armstrong - OF, Cubs: 32 hits (.432 batting average)
  2. Dillon Dingler - C, DET: 30 hits (.385 batting average)
  3. Yordan Alvarez - OF, HOU: 29 hits (.397 batting average)
  4. Jackson Chourio - OF, Brewers: 29 hits (.322 batting average)
  5. Otto Lopez - SS, Marlins: 29 hits (.354 batting average)

Home Runs

  1. Pete Crow-Armstrong - OF, Cubs: 10 home runs
  2. Nick Kurtz - 1B, Athletics: 9 home runs
  3. Jac Caglianone - 1B/OF, Royals: 9 home runs
  4. Byron Buxton - OF, Twins: 8 home runs
  5. Jackson Chourio - OF, Brewers: 8 home runs
  6. Hunter Goodman - C, Rockies: 8 home runs

Steals

  1. Bobby Witt Jr. - SS, Royals: 11 steals
  2. Jazz Chisholm Jr. - 2B, Yankees: 9 steals
  3. Nasim Nunez - SS, Nationals: 9 steals
  4. Five players with six steals (Otto Lopez, Esteury Ruiz, Taylor Walls, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Luisangel Acuna)

Strikeouts (K-BB%) - Starting Pitchers

  1. Bryce Miller, Mariners: 33.9% K-BB%
  2. Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers: 32.5% K-BB%
  3. Drew Rasmussen, Rays: 32.3% K-BB%
  4. Tatsuya Imai, Astros: 29.1% K-BB%
  5. Paul Skenes, Pirates: 27.4% K-BB%

Saves

  1. Louis Varland, Blue Jays: 8 saves
  2. Jacob Latz, Rangers: 7 saves
  3. Alex Lange, Royals: 6 saves
  4. Jhoan Duran, Phillies: 6 saves
  5. Five pitchers with 5 saves

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