The New York Yankees are drawing heat for drafting a player who admitted to antisemitic vandalism, but team officials say Core Jackson’s transformation justified the risk.
Jackson drew a swastika on a Jewish student’s dorm room door in October 2021 while a 17-year-old freshman at the University of Nebraska. Speaking with The Athletic this week, Jackson said he was “blackout drunk” during the incident and has no memory of drawing the symbol or why he targeted that particular door.
“I felt like the worst person in the world. I don’t want there to be any excuses for my actions,” he recalled.
Campus police told Jackson not to contact the affected student when he tried to apologize. Nebraska officials fined him, required online sensitivity training, and assigned community service, but Jackson faced no suspension from the baseball team or criminal charges.
Jackson’s path to redemption began during the 2024 draft process when he voluntarily disclosed the incident to a Boston Red Sox scout. His agent, Blake Corosky, learned about it for the first time during that interview and initially considered dropping Jackson as a client.
Corosky also represents Jacob Steinmetz, the first practicing Orthodox Jewish player ever drafted by MLB. Out of courtesy, Corosky contacted Steinmetz’s father, Elliot, who coaches men’s basketball at Yeshiva University, an Orthodox Jewish school in New York.
“Right away, you could tell [Jackson] was the nicest, sweetest kid in the world, [but] dumb as rocks when it came to these kinds of issues,” Elliot Steinmetz explained to The Athletic.
Jackson, who grew up in a Christian household in rural Wyoming, had minimal exposure to Jewish people or education about the Holocaust. He claims that he didn’t understand the historical significance of the swastika symbol that Adolf Hitler used to represent the Nazi Party.
Corosky agreed to continue representing Jackson under two conditions: he had to call every MLB team to admit what he did without pulling punches, and he had to work with Steinmetz to truly understand the meaning behind his actions.
Jackson spent five weeks in Holocaust education sessions with Ann Squicciarini, a graduate student at Yeshiva University. Both Steinmetz and Squicciarini said Jackson engaged fully with the material, though his initial ignorance about antisemitism was striking.
“It’s not redeemable if you think it’s just a joke,” Steinmetz said. “It’s redeemable if you do the work, take the path back [and] prove to people you’re not just doing it to get a job out of it.”
Meanwhile, Yankees amateur scouting director Damon Oppenheimer conducted what he called the most thorough background investigation of his 23-year career. Multiple conversations with Jackson, his agent, and Jewish members of the Yankees organization preceded any draft decision.
Owner Hal Steinbrenner, who rarely involves himself in mid-round selections, personally approved the pick. Team president Randy Levine and other Jewish executives within the organization also endorsed the decision after extensive deliberation.
“We were looking for accountability,” Oppenheimer told The Athletic. “He’s shown his accountability here. I think his actions have shown his remorse. He’s acknowledged it. I think he’s taken the right steps to continue to learn, to understand what he’s done.”
Jackson went undrafted in 2024, likely due to teams’ concerns about the incident. After transferring to Utah, he hit .363 with four home runs and 41 RBIs as a junior, attracting attention with his arm strength and athleticism.
In July 2025, New York selected Jackson 164th overall and signed him for $147,500—well below the pick’s typical slot value of $411,100. He’s currently ranked as the Yankees’ No. 18 prospect and has been promoted to High-A Hudson Valley, where he’s hitting .188 in limited action.
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