Mar 30, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (13) bats with a torpedo bat during the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
PHILADELPHIA - When the New York Yankees hit nine home runs on Saturday against the Milwaukee Brewers - and eight of them in the first four innings - word got out that a few guys were using a new tool.
The torpedo bat.
In short, the bat puts more of the weight and more of the wood into the sweet spot of the bat, taking it away from other parts - like the end of the bat, or the label, or the handle.
The result is a bat that looks like a python as it's ingesting a rat.
It may look weird, but early results are, well, a smashing success.
The Yankees tied a major league record with 15 home runs in their first three games, and nine of them came from players using the new torpedo bat.
Okay explanation the barrel is bigger and within mlb regulation! For the idiots that say it’s moved to the label you’re an idiot! Nobody is trying to get jammed you just move the wood from the parts you don’t use to the parts you do! You’re welcome no more stress for y’all !
But is it the bat, or is it something else?
That's what Kyle Schwarber was wondering after taking batting practice with his more traditional Louisville Slugger before the Phillies 6-1 win over the Colorado Rockies in their home opener on Monday.
"I think we're going to have to wait and see if there's any real meaning behind it or if there is another thing to look at," Schwarber said. "What were the flags doing at Yankee Stadium? Was it blowing straight out? What pitches were they hitting? Were they right down the middle or were they quality pitches? I know (Anthony) Volpe hit one out at 91 (MPH) but that didn't even hit the barrel it hit the label. It's Yankee Stadium, you know."
Yes, it's a band box. It's designed to have more home runs, so maybe these bats had very little to do with it. Maybe the Milwaukee Brewers pitching was just terrible and they paid for mistakes in one of the most homer friendly ballparks that has ever existed.
Number of fastballs at 90 MPH and below faced opening weekend, with results against them... https://t.co/KoQECIm9bk pic.twitter.com/p7rYTyBN38
Or maybe the bats are, in fact, revolutionary.
"I guess there could be good science behind it," Schwarber said. "They're trying to make the barrel of the bat bigger so that the ball that you just missed gets more of the barrel and doesn't just glance off it."
And maybe that works. But there's also the possibility that while there could be great reward for hitters, there could be greater risk as well.
If you don't hit the ball square on this meatier barrel, the contact will be more feeble.
Weaker ground balls. Cheap pop ups. Cans of corn to the shallow outfield.
But batters are hoping that trade off works.
"If you get jammed more often than hitting it off the end of the bat, then it helps," said Bryson Stott, who admitted he reached out to his reps at Victus, the Blackwood, N.J.-based bat company to ask about the torpedo bats.
Stott said the concept isn't really about making a bigger sweet spot, but rather moving it lower on the bat and using more wood in that spot so that when you connect with the ball, there is a definite difference.
The negative is, while you might have a pitch that connects with the end of the bat and leaves with less velocity, a ball that's hit 80 mph is likely going to lead to the same result - an out - as a ball hit, say, 85 mph.
But the positive is a ball hit on the barrel with this bat could have an exit velocity at 103 mph and the difference between 103 mph and 100 mph could be a home run vs. a fly out caught on the warning track.
Batters are willing to take that gamble.
Stott doesn't think he will actually use a torpedo bat, but is interested in what happens with it.
"I feel like some of those balls I hit toward the end of the bat fall in over the shortstop," Stott said. "I don't know what the torpedo would look like doing that, but I probably won't use it."
Schwarber said he's intrigued enough to give it a shot in batting practice if one eventually makes it's way to the Phillies clubhouse, but he thinks this might end up being more a fad than anything else.
He referenced the axe handle bat and the large knob bat brought into the league a few years back by Paul Goldschmidt.
Goldschmidt and McNeill have been using a bat with a weird knob for a while, and they follow the same principle, weight distribution. pic.twitter.com/83Q9LmKjZs
"A few guys still use them, but not as many as when it first happened," Schwarber said.
As for pitchers, they aren't too happy about them.
Brewers pitcher Trevor Megill referred to them as slow-pitch softball bats. As for the Phillies pitchers, if you want an answer on a hot topic in the sport, there's only one person to go to for a quote.
"If pitchers mattered in this game, maybe I'd have (an opinion)," said Matt Strahm. "But we get checked like criminals every time we walk off the mound, so I don't think our opinion matters anymore. I think they made that very clear. It's all about offense. So, yeah, let's make more offense."
Strahm also feels the only reason this is getting the attention it is is because of the team using the bats.
"Go back and watch the Baltimore Orioles, they used it last year, right," Strahm said. "It's only getting coverage because it's the Yankees."
Strahm then took the opportunity to compare this change in the bat structure to what pitchers did from 2017 through 2019 to use "sticky stuff" to have a better grip on baseballs, and how that was taken out of the game but this is going to be allowed - at least for now.
"Batters have a whole on-deck circle of stuff so they can hold onto the bat," he said. "I guarantee if we weren't getting checked like criminals, Jonathan India wouldn't be on the I.L. right now. I bet Emmanual Clase controls that fastball a little better.
Scary scene: Jonathan India got drilled in the head by a 99 MPH fastball from Emmanuel Clase. pic.twitter.com/LyuAFJXVzg
"What do (hitters) want to do? Do you want to go up there and try to hit elite (stuff) or do you want to wonder if you are going to go home and see your wife tonight?"
He's got a point.
When told pitchers - including those on his own team - might be a bit frothy about these new bats, Stott shrugged his shoulders, smiled and said, "who cares?"
