The Bronx Bombers now have torpedoes of their arsenal.
The New York Yankees formally launched the “torpedo bat” period over the weekend — with a number of gamers utilizing a modified baseball bat throughout the staff’s historic offensive onslaught in its opening collection of the 2025 season.
The wooden of the bat is shifted from the barrel in direction of the batter’s palms to create a {custom} candy spot the place contact is most ceaselessly made. The reconfiguration provides the bat the form of a torpedo — or a bowling pin, which does not sound almost as menacing or apropos.
As a result of the Yankees hit bombs with them.
9 of their MLB record-tying 15 house runs hit of their first three video games had been utilized by 5 gamers utilizing torpedo bats, together with six of a franchise-record 9 homers in Saturday’s 20-9 rout over the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I think the advantage is that you’re more likely to make a reasonable contact,” Dave Savage, a physics trainer in Oregon, instructed NBC Native. “So…you’ve increased your chances. And then the closer you can get to dead center of that sweet spot where the bat is the largest, most massive, that is going to be your largest exchange of momentum.”
It wasn’t the primary time torpedo bats had been used within the main leagues, however the Yankees’ offensive outburst helped put the torpedoes on baseball’s radar.
Some social media customers and baseball purists — and a minimum of one opposing participant – then returned hearth, saying the bats ought to be outlawed.
The bats, nevertheless, are authorized below MLB’s guidelines. And extra groups at the moment are trying so as to add torpedo bats to their very own arsenal.
What’s a torpedo bat?
Mike Stobe/Getty Pictures
Mike Stobe/Getty Pictures
The torpedo bat belonging to Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the New York Yankees. (Photograph by Mike Stobe/Getty Pictures)
The torpedo bat is a custom-shaped baseball bat with a modified barrel that’s tailor-made to maximise the contact tendencies of the batter.
Wooden is shifted from the top of the barrel to a location nearer to the palms, making the bat widest on the spot the place the batter most frequently makes contact with the ball.
That reshaping and relocation of the candy spot provides the bat the looks of a torpedo.
Who invented the torpedo bat?
No, it wasn’t the Yankees’ assistant to the touring secretary, George Costanza.
A lot of the current credit score for the implementation of the torpedo bat has gone to Aaron Leanhardt, a former Yankees front-office staffer who’s now the Miami Marlins’ subject coordinator.
Leanhardt, a former physicist on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, mentioned the concept developed in 2022 whereas he was working with the Yankees’ minor-league hitting division.
Sure, the Yankees have a literal genius MIT Physicist, Lenny (who’s the person), on payroll. He invented the “Torpedo” barrel. It brings extra wooden – and mass – to the place you most frequently make contact as a hitter. The concept is to extend the variety of “barrels” and reduce misses. pic.twitter.com/CsC1wkAM9G
— Kevin Smith (@KJS_4) March 29, 2025
The 48-year-old Leanhardt, who holds a bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering from the College of Michigan and a Ph.D. in physics from MIT, beforehand coached baseball within the Atlantic League and at a Montana neighborhood school, per The Athletic. He turned the Yankees’ main league analyst in 2024, and gamers throughout the group quickly started utilizing torpedo bats in regular-season video games.
“Really, it’s just about making the bat as heavy and as fat as possible in the area where you’re trying to do damage on the baseball,” he instructed The Athletic.
YES Community play-by-play announcer Michael Kay mentioned throughout Saturday’s broadcast that the Yankees’ analytics division had carried out a examine on shortstop Anthony Volpe exhibiting he ceaselessly hit the ball on the label of his bat, relatively than on the barrel.
So, utilizing Leanhardt’s design, the candy spot of Volpe’s bat was moved from the barrel to the label.
Michael Kay explains that the Yankees made new bats “where they moved a lot of the wood into the label so the harder part of the bat is going to strike the ball.”
Appears related right this moment… pic.twitter.com/cpldzigdrT
— Terrible Asserting (@awfulannouncing) March 29, 2025
Who makes the torpedo bat?
The Yankees requested pattern fashions of the torpedo model from a few of MLB’s 41 authorised bat producers, in accordance with ESPN. The mannequin numbers for the spec bats began with “BP” for bowling pin, a extra correct comp for the bat’s new form.
“Torpedo sounds kind of cooler,” Leanhardt instructed ESPN.
Louisville Slugger mentioned 4 groups have requested torpedo model bats from the corporate over the previous 18 months.
“Teams are analyzing every single at bat by every player, then charting the part of the bat whereeach player is making contact with the ball,” the corporate mentioned Monday in a press release. “Based on the location of the majority of a player’s contact on the barrel, teams are asking us to shift the weight of the barrel and sweet spot to accommodate each hitter.”
What’s MLB’s bat rule?
The torpedo bats don’t violate MLB’s guidelines, which state below 3.02: “The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.”
It goes on to state there could also be a cupped indentation as much as 1 1/4 inches in depth, 2 inches vast and with a minimum of a 1-inch diameter, and experimental fashions have to be authorised by MLB.
When was a torpedo bat first used?
Giancarlo Stanton may be remembered because the participant who formally launched MLB’s first torpedo.
A number of gamers, together with Volpe, experimented with the torpedo bat final season. But it surely was Stanton who used one to hit seven house runs in 14 postseason video games throughout the Yankees’ run to the 2024 World Collection, per ESPN.
5 members of the Yankees’ lineup adopted torpedo bats throughout their 2025 opening collection, crushing a mixed 9 house runs: Jazz Chisholm Jr. (three), Volpe (two), Austin Wells (two), Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger (one), who mentioned he experimented with a torpedo bat throughout batting observe final season.
Their Yankee teammate and reigning American League MVP Aaron Choose hit 4 house runs over the primary three video games of the season, however he did so with a standard bat.
Which groups use torpedo bats?
The Yankees aren’t the one staff utilizing torpedo bats.
Ryan Jeffers of the Minnesota Twins and the Rays’ Junior Caminero and Yandy Díaz used them in Spring Coaching and throughout the opening weekend of the common season, per ESPN. Davis Schneider of the Toronto Blue Jays makes use of one. MLB.com reported that members of the Baltimore Orioles have experimented with them. As did the Boston Pink Sox and Chicago Cubs in spring coaching, in accordance with the New York Occasions.
And extra torpedos at the moment are on a collision course with the league.
Tons of requests are coming in for the Torpedo Bat, says MC Huntsberry of Marucci Sports activities, massive Torpedo bat provider. No shock there!
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 31, 2025
Some pitchers, nevertheless, would possibly view using torpedo bats in the identical manner batters as soon as considered the pitching mound being elevated.
“I think it’s terrible,” Brewers nearer Trevor Megill instructed the New York Publish after watching his staff give up 15 house runs to the Yankees. “We’ll see what the info says. I’ve by no means seen something prefer it earlier than. I really feel prefer it’s one thing utilized in slow-pitch softball.
“It’s genius: Put the mass all in one spot. It might be bush (league). It might not be. But it’s the Yankees, so they’ll let it slide.”
So as to enhance equity and pace up the sport, two new rule modifications have been carried out for the 2025 MLB season.
