For many reasons I would not have expected today to be the day Nick Kurtz graduated to the big leagues. It’s exciting — and it’s puzzling. Why? Here are some of the ways in which the timing is intriguing:
1. Unless there’s an injury (or paternity leave) we haven’t heard about yet, Kurtz’ call up does not come at a time when the logjam at 1B-DH-LF has “sorted itself out”. Tyler Soderstrom, Brent Rooker, and Miguel Andujar are all healthy and performing (so long as you overlook Andujar’s defense, which has simply been terrible “as advertised”).
Adding Kurtz to the lineup necessarily means subtracting one of Soderstrom, Rooker, or Andujar while all are healthy and playing well in the areas where they are capable of playing well.