Sometimes you just need to get away, especially, perhaps, during a springtime of rebirth when the grip of a deadly pandemic is beginning to loosen but where things aren’t quite yet back to normal. Sometimes, especially for a promising prep MLB Draft prospect from New York City, the allure of the Florida sunshine and everyday baseball is just too tempting to ignore.
And so it was that Jacob Steinmetz, the son of Elliot and Sima Steinmetz of Woodmere, N.Y., found himself stepping off a plane in South Florida on March 7 so that he could begin a two-month stay at the Elev8 Baseball Academy in Delray Beach.
Steinmetz, a Fordham University commit who is three months shy of his 18th birthday, did return home for a week in early April just to see family and friends. But he wasted no time heading back south to enjoy another three-week stay before coming home for good late last week.
An excellent student, Steinmetz is set to graduate from the prestigious Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway High School, a coeducational private Modern Orthodox Jewish day school on the South Shore of Long Island in New York. But the time away served him well.
“With Covid, my high school season was up in the air and we knew it was going to be up in the air for a while,” Steinmetz told PG during a telephone conversation not long after arriving home in New York last week. “So in order to gain attention for myself out in front of the scouts we knew I needed to go somewhere and play.”
Jacob and Elliot began reaching out to people they felt could be of assistance and it happened that Elliot got in touch with Todd Moser from the Elev8 Academy through a friend of a friend. There really weren’t a whole lot of other options so Elev8 was it and, it turned out, Elev8 was perfect.
During his extended stay in the Sunshine State, Steinmetz worked with coaches and training staff at the academy and came up with a schedule where he’d pitch once a week with practices in between; he found time to work out in the gym on his own.
The competition included other Florida academy teams, NAIA college teams and Florida Southwestern, a JUCO that plays its home games at venerable City of Palms Park near downtown Fort Myers.
“Being in New York and the Northeast area there’s great competition but not playing all year-around a lot of guys take a lot longer to progress and be at their peak,” Steinmetz said. “So going down to Florida and facing top competition and playing with top guys, it was a great experience...
“During my second outing, there were a bunch of scouts back behind the plate,” he added. “It took a little bit to get used to but I think now after a couple of weeks you definitely get used to it.”
It was also an experience that appears to be paying off. Steinmetz is a 6-foot-6, 222-pound right-handed pitcher who has risen to No. 179 overall in Perfect Game’s class of 2021 national high school prospect rankings (No. 9 N.Y.) and was recently listed by PG as the No. 88 overall (college, JUCO, high school) prospect in July’s MLB Amateur Draft.
While already beginning to develop standout athletic skills, Steinmetz took it to another level in the summer between his freshman and sophomore years thanks to a noticeable growth spurt that continued through his 10th grade school year (2018).
When he turned in an all-tournament team performance at the PG Super25 14u Mid-Atlantic Regional in June 2018 playing with the New Jersey Rising Rebels 14u, Steinmetz was listed at 5-foot-11, 140 pounds. Exactly one year later at the 2019 PG Super25 15u Mid-Atlantic Regional, this time with the Dream Chaser’s Select in another all-tournament team performance, he was up to 6-foot-3, 175 pounds.
The growth spurt has slowed but not stopped. Steinmetz was listed at 6-foot-5, 208 pounds when he took the mound for the Team Georgia National/9ers Baseball Club at the 2020 PG WWBA World Championship (Jupiter) in Fort Myers, Fla., last October, well on the way to his current listing of 6-foot-6, 222 pounds.
Steinmetz’s PG career – rostered at 27 events to date – has certainly come with its share of accolades largely – but not exclusively – while playing in PG Super25 tournaments. He was named the Most Valuable Pitcher while helping the Long Island Body Armor Titans to the championship at the 2020 PG Super25 17u Northeast Super Qualifier and was all-tournament at three other Super25 events with Long Island Body Armor.
But, as evidenced by his move to Florida this spring, he’s never been afraid to broaden his horizons. Steinmetz’s other all-tournament team performances came at the 2019 PG WWBA 16u National Championship (Long Island Body Armor Titans 16u), the 2019 PG WWBA Underclass World Championship (MVP BEAST American), the 2020 PG 18u New England Select Championship (LIBA Titans) and the 2020 PG WWBA Northeast Qualifier (Long Island Titans Quattrini).
At his most recent PG outings during the summer and fall of 2020, Steinmetz has flashed a low-90s fastball with a high-70s curveball and low-80s slider. During his MV-Pitcher performance at the Super25 17u NE Super Qualifier in Yaphank, N.Y., last July, he pitched 6 2/3, three-hit, 10-strikeout innings with a fastball that sat 87-90, a 76 mph curve and a slider that topped out at 86 mph.
“He’s really dedicated himself to getting better in the weight room and continuing to put good weight on his frame,” his dad, Elliot, told PG last week. “He’s continued to work on his mechanics and his stuff, and to see him starting to get the recognition that he’s getting is certainly a proud moment as a dad.
“But I look at it also from that life-skills perspective where whatever he ends up doing in life...it’s going to be a great learning tool and a great part of his character going forward.”
Jacob Steinmetz is an observant Orthodox Jew, and his faith is the guiding force in his life. Jewish athletes are often forced to make difficult decisions in matters of their faith while also honoring commitments made to their teams and teammates.
Most of those conflicts arise in regard to the Shabbat – the Jewish Sabbath – which traditionally begins at sunset on Friday and continues through sunset on Saturday. During that time period, observant Jews often refrain from participation in activities that do not involve dedication to their faith.
Jewish holidays also come into play and in one well-documented historical occasion, Dodgers Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax famously chose to not start Game 1 of the 1965 World Series against the Twins because it coincided with Yom Kippur.
The younger Steinmetz, according to his dad, is planning to play on Saturdays but will avoid conflicts with the Shabbat in terms of travel and other considerations.
“We talk about it a lot and we talk about, obviously, the importance of it,” Elliot said. “A big part of his character and his development has been his love for his religion and his commitment to it. We don’t think there will be sacrifices as much as what we like to call challenges and adjustments. But I don’t think he’ll have to sacrifice his religion to make this work...
“It’s one of those things where there’s a lot of respect out there for what he’s trying to accomplish (and) we don’t anticipate a situation where he’ll have to miss any starts or miss any workout times.”
Jacob Steinmetz has signed his letter of intent to play baseball at Fordham University (a private D-I research institution in The Bronx) becoming what is believed one of a very small number of Orthodox Jewish players to do so.
“There’s definitely going to be challenges and obstacles throughout the way,” he said. “One of the reasons I committed to Fordham was because they were very willing to accommodate me the best they could. It will take a lot of work but I’ve been able to figure it out up until now so I don’t see why I can’t keep doing it...
“Growing up and doing it that way with my dad built discipline in me and staying committed. Now that I’ve done it throughout my whole life I don’t see why I have to stop doing it.”
Elliot Steinmetz is a legal partner at Rosenberg & Steinmetz PC on Madison Avenue in New York City and his wife and Jacob’s mother, Sima Steinmetz, works as an accountant. When Elliot isn’t practicing law, he can be found conducting practices as the head men’s basketball coach at NCAA D-III Yeshiva University in NYC.
That is not just a throw-away reference. Elliot took over the program in 2014 and the Maccabees had a 29-1 record after winning 29 straight games heading into the D-III national tournament in 2020 before the season was brought to a premature end. They played only seven games this season but won them all, and their 36-game winning streak is the longest in the nation regardless of NCAA division.
Jacob Steinmetz played basketball himself right up until this year, when he felt it wise to concentrate his athletic efforts on baseball. And, according to his basketball dad-slash-basketball coach, he was a high-level hoopster playing as a 6-foot-6 guard, and if it weren’t for his baseball prowess he may have very well been a starter for his dad at Yeshiva in the next year or two.
“I lost that recruiting battle,” Elliot said with a laugh before continuing with his thoughts:
“It’s definitely been a wild ride, no doubt,” he said. “Coaching a (Division III) college basketball team in New York City, I kind of see it from two angles. I’m not in the baseball world...but as a coach you kind of see it with your own guys on the team that I coach; the guys who put the work in get the results.
“I’ve seen (Jacob) just really dedicate himself to it without slipping in the classroom, which has been awesome. He’s maintained the National Honor Society [distinction] and the high GPA [3.7] and the high academic accolades, which is great.”
Jacob is grateful and appreciative of the guidance his father continues to provide.
“With my dad being a college coach – and he was a high school coach before that – just him being a coach in general definitely helped teach me a lot of lessons about sports and being a good teammate...and in general being a leader,” he said.
Playing D-I baseball was a goal of Jacob’s since he started to blossom during his middle school years and it was one he was determined to achieve. The “crazy” (his dad’s word) growth spurt was certainly a blessing but the offer and subsequent commitment is not something the family takes for granted.
Jacob signed his letter with Fordham before the MLB Draft talk really began to percolate, so the pro ball option wasn’t really on anyone’s mind at the time. It was more of a recognition within the family that playing college baseball had become more than a pipe dream and everything about Fordham, which had shown interest from the beginning of the recruiting process, seemed like an ideal fit.
“It’s definitely an exciting opportunity for him to continue to play baseball at a high level and then hit the academics hard at a really prestigious institution,” Elliot said. He added that he feels like his son having been forced to make so many adjustments to his every-day life during the pandemic shutdowns made him stronger in the end.
“Just finding ways to adapt and kind of succeed and continue to move forward, I think it has made him not just a better ballplayer but overall a better person with more life skills.”
During his stay at Elev8 Academy in Florida, Steinmetz began meeting with some MLB teams for the first time, and while the family knows there’s a high level of interest, everyone is content to show patience and see how things shake out over the next couple of months.
Every highly-regarded prep prospect aspires to play professionally one day, and Steinmetz is no exception. It’s certainly nice that he has the option of continuing his baseball career and academic pursuits at Fordham but, as Elliot said, “If something works out where there is a great opportunity to get into pro ball and develop we’d be stupid not to consider it.”
And that’s exactly what Jacob Steinmetz will do:
“It all happened really quickly, honestly,” he said of the draft interest. “Now, obviously, things are starting to heat up a bit and going down to Florida was a successful trip. I talk to my parents about it a little and I talk to my advisor about it a little but I’m not focused on that stuff as much right now...I’m definitely happy and I’m looking forward to the future.”