The New York Yankees are taking an outside-the-box approach to bolstering their offensive production this season, and it’s starting to irk some outsiders.
New York crushed a franchise-record nine home runs during Saturday’s 20-9 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, and then scored another 12 on Sunday. If you weren’t paying close attention, you’d assume the Yankees were swinging baseball’s traditional maple barrels, but the team has instead pioneered a new, torpedo-shaped bat — vaguely reminiscent of the plastic jumbo bats parents gift their elementary-aged children.
Not only have the torpedo bats drawn viral attention on social media, but they’ve also generated (negative) attention from opposing teams. Brewers relief pitcher Trevor Megill is among those against the bats.
“I think it’s terrible,” Megill said, per the New York Post’s Dan Martin. “We’ll see what the data says. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I feel like it’s something used 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.”
Harsh? Yup. Accurate? Well… it’s far too early to make that determination yet.
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It’s easy to attribute the thunderous offensive firepower to the odd-looking, but legally constructed bats, however, not everyone has adopted them. Aaron Judge, who’s already reached an American League-leading four home runs hit thus far, isn’t using the torpedo lumber. Teammates, including Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Anthony Volpe — who’ve combined to hit six home runs — on the other hand, are using them.
New York put a lot of thought into the creation of the bats, which Volpe began testing out during spring training. Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger was presented with a prototype version of the bat last season with the Chicago Cubs, but elected not to use it.
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“The Yankees front office, the analytical department, did a study on Anthony Volpe, and every single ball it seemed like he hit on the label. He didn’t hit any on the barrel,” YES Network’s Michael Kay explained during Saturday’s broadcast. “So they had bats made up where they moved a lot of the wood into the label so the harder part of the bat is going to actually strike the ball.”
In theory, the bats make sense. MLB hasn’t cited any violation on New York’s part, therefore, it seems like the torpedo bats are more of a wide sportsmanship move than anything else. The Yankees tallied an MLB-best 237 home runs last season before making their failed World Series run. They also ranked third with 782 RBIs and ninth with a .248 batting average, and the club had no intentions of entering 2025 content.
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“That’s just trying to be the best we can be,” manager Aaron Boone said Sunday, per Larry Fleisher of the Associated Press. “That’s one of the things that’s gotten pointed out. I say to you guys all the time, we’re trying to win on the margins, and that shows up in so many different ways.”
Perhaps the clean-shaven beard sports, pinstripe-wearing Yankees might’ve put a new trend on the map? If the high volume run-scoring continues, it’s hard to imagine others across the league won’t look into adapting the torpedo bats moving forward.
