Sunday, August 03

WEST SACRAMENTO – From the temporary locker set up for him inside a corner of the Athletics clubhouse at Sutter Health Park, Jamie Arnold looked to his right and saw Jacob Wilson sitting in the other corner. Then he looked directly across the room, where Nick Kurtz got up from his chair and approached him for a chat.

Two years ago, all three were playing college baseball. Wilson reached the big leagues in 2024, followed by Kurtz this season. For Arnold, the 11th overall selection by the A’s out of Florida State in the 2025 MLB Draft, there was no better example of how quickly he could see his Major League dream realized if he performs well, especially Kurtz, who was called up by the A’s in April, just nine months after beginning his professional career.

“It’d be sick,” Arnold said of potentially teaming up with Kurtz. “I faced him two years in college when he was [at Wake Forest]. He’s a great player, and the fact that we can be on the same team now is pretty cool. Hopefully, I can be up here soon helping him out.”

While at Florida State, Arnold engaged in some competitive battles with Kurtz and even got the better of the A’s rookie slugger at times. After Kurtz singled off him twice and drew a walk in three head-to-head matchups in 2023, Arnold struck him out twice in two ‘24 at-bats. Not bad against a player who just became the first rookie ever to hit four home runs in a single game.

“My freshman year, he got the better end of things,” Arnold said. “My sophomore year, I struck him out twice and we intentionally walked him once. I was a little upset about that. But he’s a great player.”

In town to sign his professional contract prior to Monday’s series opener against the Mariners, Arnold joined the A’s on the field for pregame workouts. Before that, Arnold was accompanied by his parents, brother, sister and girlfriend for lunch with A’s general manager David Forst and manager Mark Kotsay.

Kotsay could rattle off all the accolades – First Team All-ACC, Consensus All-American, Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, just to name a few. Beyond that, though, he was impressed by Arnold’s mindset.

"We’re excited to have him,” Kotsay said. “He’s very advanced for a college kid in terms of knowing what he wants to do with the baseball and what he does really well with the baseball. That says a lot about his makeup. Another great compliment to him is that he went to Arizona with our whole Draft class, which I think is great. He knew quite a few of the names, and he only spent a week with them, which is really impressive.”

Kotsay was also pleased to hear of Arnold’s college success against Kurtz, and he let the big first baseman know about it.

“Six pitches, six strikes,” Kotsay said with a grin. “Two punchouts in six pitches. … The day we drafted him, Nick was very excited about our Draft choice because he was dominated by Jamie Arnold last year.”

For as difficult as it was for the A’s to part ways with JP Sears -- their most durable starter over the past few seasons -- along with closer Mason Miller at the Trade Deadline, part of why the A’s felt comfortable doing so is because of now having Arnold in the fold. The 21-year-old left-hander adds to a promising group of pitching prospects rising through the system that includes A’s No. 2 prospect Gage Jump, No. 3 prospect Luis Morales, who made his Major League debut on Friday night, and No. 5 prospect Braden Nett, who was part of the return for Sears and Miller.

Arnold will go through a ramp-up period in the coming weeks before getting his professional career officially underway.

Who knows? Given the advanced development of Arnold, who posted a 2.98 ERA for the second consecutive season this spring and struck out 119 batters over 84 2/3 innings, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him quickly rise through the system and perhaps even join Wilson and Kurtz in the Majors around this time next year.

“It was great meeting all these guys,” Arnold said. “It’s a super young team. Hopefully, I can be up here soon helping them.”

“First time out, the young man handled himself alright. He got a big double-play ball that Gio [Urshela] made a nice play on to kind of settle him in. It’s never easy. You don’t know how guys are going to respond when they get out there. After the second inning, he came off and we told him he was done. You could tell he was a little frustrated with his performance, which is a great sign. He wants to be better, and I think he’ll be better next time out.”

-- Kotsay on the Major League debut of Morales, who allowed one run on three hits and one walk across two innings of relief in Friday's 5-1 victory over the D-backs.

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