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.