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July 19th, 2021
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (July 19, 2021) – The Kansas City Royals announced tonight that they have signed 15 of their 21 selections in last week’s 2021 First-Year Player Draft, adding three more to the list tonight.
The most recent signees include right-handed pitcher
Ben Kudrna (2nd round, 43rd overall), right-handed pitcher
Shane Panzini (4th round/108th overall) and shortstop
Ryan Cepero (8th round/229th overall).
Kudrna is a graduate of nearby Blue Valley Southwest High School (KS), where he was 9-1 with a 0.99 ERA during his senior season earning Gatorade State High School Player of the Year honors.
Panzini posted a 9-0 mark with a 0.91 ERA as a senior at Red Bank Catholic High School (NJ), while recording a single-season record 115 strikeouts.
Jacob Steinmetz is the first Orthodox player drafted by a Major League Baseball team. (Courtesy of the Steinmetz family via JTA)
JTA If all goes well for Jacob Steinmetz, he could run into a kosher food problem in the near future.
Steinmetz, a 17-year-old pitcher from suburban New York with a blazing fastball, made history on Monday as the first Orthodox Jewish baseball player to be drafted by a major league team. The Arizona Diamondbacks chose the Long Island native with the 77th overall pick, far higher than expected.
If the 6-foot-5, 220-pounder chooses to start his professional career immediately, foregoing a college scholarship to Fordham, he could eventually find himself on a minor league team “in the middle of nowhere, as most minor leagues teams are,” Steinmetz acknowledged to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a phone interview Wednesday.
Two Orthodox Jews Make MLB Draft History jewishlink.news - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jewishlink.news Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.