Yankees stand up for decision to draft player who drew swastika on Jewish student's door

Yahoo

14 hours ago

The Yankees drafted Core Jackson out of Utah in the fifth round last month knowing that the shortstop drew a swastika on the door of a Jewish student's dorm room in 2021.
Jackson was a 17-year-old freshman at the University of Nebraska at the time of the incident. He told The Athletic in a story published Wednesday morning that he was 'blackout drunk' and 'had no recollection of the incident or why he did it.'
The Yankees didn't take the decision to draft Jackson lightly. According to The Athletic, Jackson was picked after the most thorough deep dive into a player in Yankees amateur scouting director Damon Oppenheimer's career. It also came after conversations with Jewish members of the Yankees' organization — like team president Randy Levine — with direct clearance from owner Hal Steinbrenner.
'I think it's important that it is part of my story,' Jackson said. 'I have this platform now that God has given me, and I can share my story about his forgiveness.'
The Yankees drafted Jackson with the 164th overall selection in the draft this year. He signed for a bonus of $147,500, per The Athletic, which is well under the pick's slot value ($411,100). Now, Jackson is ranked as the No. 18 prospect in the Yankees' farm system by MLB Pipeline.
Jackson's accountability is a big reason why the Yankees were open to drafting him.
The infielder's agent, Blake Corosky, also represents Jacob Steinmetz, a pitching prospect with the Diamondbacks and the first practicing Orthodox Jewish player ever to be drafted. Steinmetz's father, Elliot, is the head men's basketball coach at Yeshiva University in New York City, an Orthodox Jewish school.
After considering dropping Jackson, Corosky stuck around under two conditions: the infielder would call a representative from every MLB team to admit to what he did (he couldn't 'pull any punches' either, no matter how hard those conversations were) and to work with Steinmetz to truly understand the meaning behind what he did.
The Athletic's story goes on to report that Jackson, who grew up in a Christian household in Wyoming, had very little knowledge of Judaism. He hadn't encountered many Jewish people either. He didn't know the full history of what a swastika represents, an ancient symbol that Adolf Hitler chose to represent the Nazi Party in Germany in the 20th century.
Since being drafted, Jackson was quickly promoted to High-A Hudson Valley where he has played in 10 games so far.
Jackson told The Athletic that he knows fans may still be bothered by his past, but he assured that he's a different person now than he was then.
'I would ask for their forgiveness and let them know I'm not the same person I was when that happened,' Jackson said. 'I've grown up. I've learned. I've reconciled. I've done the things I needed to do to learn about it.'
'I feel that moving forward we've got a good citizen and a good person and a good baseball player,' Oppenheimer added.
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