Oakland's already-rough season got worse this weekend when the Athletics placed both Nick Kurtz and Zack Gelof on the 10-day injured list, gutting the middle of a lineup that didn't have a ton of margin for error to begin with.
Athletics To Place Nick Kurtz, Zack Gelof On Injured List t.co/F0VCpHmGws
Kurtz is the bigger gut punch by far. The 23-year-old was hitting .266 with 20 home runs and 66 RBIs in 92 games this year, following up a 2025 AL Rookie of the Year campaign in which he posted a .290 average with 36 homers and 86 RBIs in just 117 games. He'd been in line to start at first base for the American League in Philadelphia after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. pulled out with a back injury, but a right thumb capsule sprain ended that plan and the All-Star Game entirely. He'd already exited a game earlier in the week after just an inning and a half, which the club initially chalked up to illness before it became clear he'd also banged up the hand trying to field a throw.
Gelof's injury is nastier than it sounds on paper. He collided with the left field wall going after a fly ball and came away with a deep laceration under his kneecap that manager Mark Kotsay said "just missed the tendon." Oakland recalled Joey Meneses from Triple-A Las Vegas to help fill the gap, but replacing Gelof's versatility in the field and at the plate isn't a one-for-one swap.
The spiraling #Athletics lose their best hitter to the 10-day injured list: t.co/uQa59DP7TX
Losing your best hitter and a key everyday player in the same stretch is a brutal blow for a team trying to find any kind of footing. Kurtz was the engine of this offense, a legitimate middle-of-the-order force who was building on his Rookie of the Year hype with an All-Star-caliber follow-up season. Now Oakland has to navigate the second half without him for at least the minimum 10 days, and without Gelof for a comparable stretch, all while the roster around them gets thinner by the week.
The fantasy fallout is immediate and obvious, but the bigger story is organizational. A young core that was supposed to represent the next step forward for this franchise now has to prove it can hold water without two of its most important pieces in the lineup. How the A's play the next couple of weeks will say a lot about the depth behind Kurtz and Gelof, and how quickly the front office needs to go shopping for reinforcements.