March 2, 2026

Steady in Faith, Selective in Swing, and Set for the Show: RJ SCHRECK

DUNEDIN, Fla. – From Adat Ari El Jewish Day School to the major leagues? RJ Schreck is tantalizingly close to making it happen.

The six-foot outfielder is taking a break from his second major-league spring training camp with the Toronto Blue Jays to suit up for Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic, hoping to put himself on the team’s radar even more than he already is.

“The environment in Miami is going to be absolutely insane,” said Schreck before heading across the state to join Team Israel as it prepares for the WBC. “Getting a chance to play in that environment before debuting (in Major League Baseball) I think is going to be really important because those games are going to be really loud and really intense. It’s going to be the first time that I’m playing in front of 40,000-plus people. Getting that experience under my belt is going to be a blast.”

Israel opens up its Pool D schedule on Saturday March 7 at 7:00pm EST against Venezuela (sunset is at 6:26pm) and will also play the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and the Netherlands.

“I’ve been talking to [Blue Jays teammates Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Andrés Giménez] about our games that we’re going to have against each other there,” Schreck said.

Guerrero will be suiting up for the Dominican Republic, and Gimenez for Venezuela.

Schreck had a typical Jewish upbringing in Los Angeles, went to Adat Ari El for elementary school, and had his bar mitzvah at Naschon Minyan. He then attended the baseball powerhouse Harvard-Westlake School for high school, which he estimates was 20 to 30 percent Jewish during his stay, but those numbers decreased greatly when he went to play baseball in college, first at Duke and then at Vanderbilt.

“You start meeting some people who had never met a Jew before and don’t know what Judaism is, which was shocking,” Schreck said. 

“Growing up in L.A., you don’t have that thought of ‘what is a Jew?’ and then you get to these places where you might start hearing some things and you might start doing some double takes.”

But Schreck used the opportunity to educate many of his college schoolmates and demystify Judaism to them.

“It’s really rewarding when they get to know you and they get to understand what Judaism is,” the 25-year-old said. “They realize that you are just an American who happens to practice a different religion from them.”

It certainly did not hurt, either, that Schreck is a star athlete. He hit .288 with eight home runs in his final year at Duke, driving in 37 runs in 47 games before moving on to Vanderbilt, where he blew those numbers away in his one season with the Commodores.

In 62 games at Vandy, Schreck hit .306 with a 1.042 OPS. He had 31 extra-base hits, including 14 homers, and drove in 59 runs, catching the eye of the Seattle Mariners, who drafted him in the ninth round in 2023.

The next year, with the Mariners pushing for a playoff spot and the Blue Jays wallowing in last place, Seattle traded Schreck to Toronto straight up for Justin Turner, a two-time all-star who had previously played nine years for the Los Angeles Dodgers, becoming a star there when Schreck was a teenager.

“Growing up in L.A., getting traded for Justin Turner was a crazy moment in my life,” Schreck said.

At first, he was shocked, expecting several other higher-ranked prospects to be traded before he was.

“You’re getting shipped to a completely new organization. The team that drafted you doesn’t want you anymore,” Schreck said. “And then you take a step back and you realize, no, major league obviously comes first and the organization is making a deal that’s trying to make their major-league team better in the short run. And you hear congratulations because the other organization is playing for the long run and hoping you can help them down the line and they’re the ones that asked for you.”

Not only did the Blue Jays ask for him, they have been thrilled to have him, with general manager Ross Atkins calling out Schreck by name when asked earlier this spring which young players he was especially looking forward to seeing once camp opened.

Toronto manager John Schneider has been very impressed as well.

“Getting to know him last year, one of the more impressive individual meetings to have with a young player,” said Schneider as he prepared to lose Schreck and catcher C.J. Stubbs to Team Israel along with his entire starting infield – catcher Alejandro Kirk (Mexico), second baseman Ernie Clement (USA) and third baseman Kazuma Okamoto (Japan) along with Giménez and Guerrero – to the WBC.

“(He’s) very aware of his game, very aware of his swing, very aware of what he needs to get better at. That has carried over to this spring. He has a leg up on a lot of younger guys in terms of approach…his back and forth with the hitting coaches is that of a major leaguer,” Schneider said.

Schreck’s strike zone awareness is his calling card. He had an OBP over .400 in each of his three years as a regular in college and since moving into pro ball, has gotten on base 38.6% of the time.

The credit, he believes, goes to a word of wisdom he got from C.J. Gillman, currently the Washington Nationals’ Director of Hitting, but then the Minor-League Hitting Coordinator with Seattle. Gillman told him that it was better to be 0-and-1 in the count than 0-for-1 in the at-bat.

“Trying to be patient and selective for your pitch as opposed to any pitch that you can make contact with,” said Schreck, summing up the philosophy. “I’m very ok and comfortable being in an 0-and-1 count if it means that I didn’t swing at a pitch that I know that I can’t do damage on.”

That hitting philosophy, in addition to his talent and ability, of course, could take young Robert Jonathan Schreck a long way in this game. His first time under the brightest lights will be when he takes the field for Team Israel this weekend in Miami.

Before he left Blue Jays’ camp, though, he gave them something by which to remember him. In his final game, Schreck singled, stole home as part of a double steal, and made a sensational diving catch on the warning track in deep right field to end the game, sealing a 7-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Yasher ko’ach, indeed.

By Israel Baseball News Staff, Mike Wilner