BLEICH Jeremy

General
DUAL NATIONALITY
He was born and raised in the United States of America, and competed for the U18 US team at the 2005 COPABE Championships in Mexico. He is eligible to play for Israel through his family, and is the grandson of George and Yolanda Bleich, who were originally from Czechoslovakia and were imprisoned in several concentration camps, including Auschwitz. "The more successful we are, the more attention we can bring Israel [in baseball], and can help provide confidence, desire and hope for young Israeli kids to step out of their comfort zone and want to play baseball. [My grandparents' story] is certainly inspiring. It gives you a foundation for some of the struggles you go through, [it] gives you perspective. You always can get frustrated by something, but something like that keeps you grounded." (cpe-prod.usabaseball.com, 01 Sep 2005; mycentraljersey.com, 27 Aug 2016; jns.org, 07 Jan 2020; jewishbaseballnews.com, 13 Sep 2019; olympicbaseball.wbsc.org, 22 Sep 2019; jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com, 12 Jan 2017; sfgate.com, 21 Feb 2018)

MLB EXPERIENCE
He was drafted by the New York Yankees in the first round, 44th overall, of the 2008 MLB June Amateur Draft from Stanford University. He played in the minor leagues for the next 10 years, during which time he was signed by a number of other MLB teams. He made his MLB debut for the Oakland Athletics in 2018 and played in two games for the team, before returning to the minors. He became a free agent in November 2019 after a season playing for three minor league teams. "I think I wouldn't trade my path for anything else. It's definitely shaped who I am." (jns.org, 07 Jan 2020; milb.com, 01 Sep 2019; mlb.com, 13 Jul 2018)