Jacob Steinmetz (born July 19, 2003) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

in the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The f ...

organization. He was selected as the 77th overall pick in the 2021 first-year player draft by the

. He signed for a below-slot $500,000. He is the first practicing

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...

player to be selected by a major league team.

Pitching style

The 6' 6”, 224 lbs pitcher can throw a fastball at up to 97 miles per hour.

Personal life

Steinmetz, a

Woodmere, New York Woodmere is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 17,554 at the 2016 census. Woodmere is one of the Long Island communities known as the Five Towns, w ...

native, graduated from the

Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) is a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school on the South Shore of Long Island in New York, United States, serving male and female students in preschool through twelfth grade. It is a private ...

(HAFTR) in 2021, where he played as well, landing him a scholarship to

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

, where he was to play at the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

level. His father, Elliot Steinmetz, is the

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU
on the Yeshiva Universit ...

Men's Basketball Coach. Steinmetz is the first practicing Orthodox Jew to be drafted into the

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. He keeps the Sabbath and eats only

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

food.

References

External links

Jewish baseball players Living people 2003 births Arizona Complex League Diamondbacks players {{Baseball-pitcher-stub