Yankees prospect confessed to dark anti-Semitic past before New York drafted him in 2025

When the New York Yankees drafted Utah shortstop Core Jackson in the fifth round of last month's MLB Draft, they knew he'd admitted to drawing a swastika on a Jewish student's door while attending Nebraska in October of 2021.

In fact, as The Athletic has now revealed, it was Jackson who alerted teams about the incident before the 2024 MLB draft, where he would go unselected.

But after what Yankees amateur scouting director Damon Oppenheimer described as the deepest background check of his career, the team ultimately took Jackson with the 164th pick of the 2025 MLB Draft. Jackson has since signed a $147,500 bonus — a steep discount for that part of the draft, where players typically get around $400,000 — before being sent to a minor-league affiliate upstate.

Oppenheimer admitted that Jackson's past 'affected' his draft status with the Yankees in 2024, but New York felt comfortable picking him this year after a rigorous process that has now been revealed by The Athletic.

A team with Jewish players (Max Fried), coaches (Brad Ausmus), executives (Randy Levine) and one of the game's largest Jewish fanbases, the Yankees' due diligence included multiple conversations with Jackson, Utah head coach Gary Henderson and Elliot Steinmetz, the head basketball coach at Division III Yeshiva University in New York, who helped to educate the shortstop on Jewish history.

'I think it's important that it is part of my story,' Jackson, now 21, told The Athletic. 'I have this platform now that God has given me, and I can share my story about his forgiveness.'

This story begins when Jackson was a 17-year-old freshman at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

One night, while admittedly 'blackout drunk,' Jackson drew a swastika on the door of a Jewish student, who was not identified by The Athletic and has never been named publicly. A Nebraska spokesperson declined to comment on the situation to The Athletic, while insisting the school 'takes discrimination and similar allegations very seriously.'

Jackson said he didn't even know who lived in the dorm room at the time, claiming he later 'broke down in tears' the following day when he learned exactly what he'd done.

'I felt like the worst person in the world,' he told The Athletic. 'I don't want there to be any excuses for my actions.'

Jackson said he wanted to apologize to the student, but was told by campus police not to do that. He also claimed he was fined and required to undergo basic sensitivity training in addition to performing community service. 

However, Jackson was never arrested, much less charged with a hate crime.

In fact, he played for the Cornhuskers that spring, hitting just .210 all while feeling he was in a 'dark place.'

He'd transfer ahead of his sophomore season, but said he didn't have any Division I offers, so the Ontario, Canada native transferred to South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, where he hit an impressive .321.

The following year, Jackson enrolled at the University of Utah, where he hit .363, while attracting scouts ahead of the 2024 MLB Draft.

At the time, teams were unaware of the swastika incident until Jackson brought it up himself in an interview with the Boston Red Sox reps.

'Everybody found out about it [then],' Blake Corosky, Jackson's agent, told The Athletic. 'Including us.'

Corosky admittedly considered abandoning the prospect, but changed his mind when he thought of another client, Jacob Steinmetz, an Arizona Diamondbacks pitching prospect and the first practicing Orthodox Jewish player ever taken in the MLB Draft.

Steinmetz's father, Elliot, is the head basketball coach at New York's Yeshiva University, a private Orthodox school with four campuses, including one in the Bronx about a 30-minute cab ride from Yankee Stadium.

Seeing an opportunity to turn a bad situation into a learning experience, the elder Steinmetz agreed to call Jackson.

'Right away,' he said, 'you could tell [Jackson] was the nicest, sweetest kid in the world, [but] dumb as rocks when it came to these kinds of issues.'

Steinmetz felt that Jackson didn't understand the symbolism behind the swastika, nor the impact the German Nazi Party had on the 20th century.

'If I walked into a hall and saw a swastika, I'd be pissed off,' Steinmetz said he told Jackson. 'My grandparents would be freaked out and terrified by it.'

Corosky continued working with Jackson, but only on the conditions that he tell all 30 MLB teams what he did and continue working with Steinmetz.

Jackson admitted that calling teams 'wasn't easy' but says it 'was part of growing up and understanding to take ownership of my actions.'

He also said scouts appreciated his candidness.

Corosky admits that Jackson hasn't been a saint since the 2021 incident. 

While at Utah, Jackson was arrested for driving under the influence on campus, but Corosky said that has been reduced to a misdemeanor, allowing his client to perform community service and receive substance abuse training. Now, Corosky told The Athletic, Jackson has gone months without touching a drop of alcohol.

His newfound sobriety coincided with his new coursework, which Steimetz helped arrange through a grad student at Yeshiva named Ann Squicciarini.

Squicciarini put together a five-week course for Jackson, including video and written assignments, and the two met together for an hour each week.

All reports were given to Steinmetz.

'He was attentive and engaged,' Squicciarini said of Jackson.

Ari Kohen, the director of the Harris Center for Judaic Studies at Nebraska, appeared to agree with Jackson's process, telling The Athletic that combatting antisemitism requires education more than punishment.

'If we drive to punish,' he said, 'that doesn't allow us to take that teachable opportunity. There's a lot that I think we miss.'

Henderson, Jackson's college coach, also weighed in on his behalf, thanks to a 40-year relationship with Oppenheimer.

The message was fairly simple: Jackson was 'really playing well' after he 'turned a corner.'

'He's been a good person, a good teammate,' Henderson told Oppenheimer.

As other teams began to show interest, waves of conversations with Yankees reps quickly followed, including several with Jewish officials within the organization.

The team did not speak with the University of Nebraska, which was severely limited in what it can divulge, but Oppenheimer felt the process was thorough.

'I don't think we've ever done this,' Oppenheimer said. '[The Yankees front office] has knowledge of the players we think we're going to be involved in, but not to the degree that they needed to be aware of [this] situation.'

'I feel that moving forward,' Oppenheimer continued, 'we've got a good citizen and a good person and a good baseball player.'

Jackson called Steinmetz after being drafted.

'He was thanking me for everything I did,' Steinmetz said, 'how much it means to him, how he's not going to let me down and how he's going to get to work.

As for Jackson, he continues to face up to what he did, while insisting he's learned from the experience.

'I would ask for their forgiveness and let them know I'm not the same person I was when that happened,' he said. 'I've grown up. I've learned. I've reconciled. I've done the things I needed to do to learn about it.'