NEW YORK — It’s not the wand. It’s the wizard. Or, well, maybe it’s bot
One thing is certain: The New York Yankees are not cheating. They are not breaking — or even bending — the rules. Their so-called “torpedo bats” that have gone viral in recent days are completely legal. In fact, a handful of other players around the league used the oddly shaped bats over MLB’s opening weekend. That number will almost certainly rise in the coming days.
Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists and tin-foil-hat wearers, there is no secret Yankees bat laboratory hidden beneath the 4 train.
These new-age sticks made news over the weekend amid a historic offensive barrage by the Yankees’ offense. On Saturday, New York hitters blasted nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers, the highest single-game tally in the franchise’s 122-year history. A day later, the Bombers went deep four more times in a series-sweeping 12-3 drubbing.
Yet it was not the sluggers but their equipment that made headlines.
The bats look extraordinarily bizarre — abnormal, misshapen. Instead of a barrel that maintains an even circumference down the grain, as has been the norm for decades in professional baseball, the torpedo bats feature a thicker sweet spot before thinning off again toward the end. The result, in theory, is a piece of wood with more mass distributed in the specific location where contact is made. And if you remember anything from high school physics: Force equals mass times acceleration.
“The concept makes so much sense,” Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe told reporters before Sunday’s game. The 24-year-old is off to a hot start in 2025, with home runs in the first two games of the season. “I know I’m bought in. The bigger you can have the barrel where you hit the ball, it makes sense to me.”
Volpe was one of four Yankees to go yard with the unusual lumber over the weekend, along with Austin Wells, Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger. Meanwhile, reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge, who has already cranked four homers this season, was less convinced. That’s understandable, considering the titanic outfielder has launched a league-leading 161 long balls since 2022.
“What I did the past couple of seasons speaks for itself,” the Yankees captain explained. “Why try to change something if you have something that’s working?”
Judge’s is a rational line of thinking, but for the mere mortals across MLB, the new tech has real appeal. Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero and Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers were two other big leaguers seen using the bats Sunday. And while the advent of these bats has been credited to former Yankees hitting analyst and current Miami Marlins field coordinator Aaron Leanhardt, various MLB sources told Yahoo Sports that multiple other teams have been working on similar technology for some time.
Multiple bat companies already manufacture torpedo bats, including Victus Sports, which teased its version on Instagram on Sunday. Players typically have deals with specific bat makers, who then coordinate with the player to find a model that works best for them. High-profile players, such as Volpe, will occasionally dig deeper, crafting a custom bat specialized in categories such as weighting, balance, thickness and density. The process, to its advocates, is similar to club fitting in golf, in which equipment is specifically tailored to its user.
How much of an actual advantage these torpedo bats create remains an open question. Because while the recent Yankees performance was eye-catching, several other factors contributed to the home run downpour. The Brewers are currently facing something of a pitching injury crisis, with eight of their top 13 arms unavailable. As a result, two hurlers made their MLB debuts Saturday, allowing a combined four homers. Former Yankee Nestor Cortes, who surrendered five homers Saturday, also looked discombobulated in his return to the Bronx, repeatedly missing spots up in the zone with his fastball.
That didn’t stop those on the receiving end of the offensive barrage from registering their complaints about the Yankees’ bats. But the truth is that only time, scientific testing and a much larger sample of data will determine exactly how beneficial the torpedo bats might be compared to a more typical piece of lumber.
But where the Yankees have already notably succeeded is in fostering buy-in from their players.
Convincing big-league hitters, particularly successful ones, to change anything about their routines can be difficult. These are creatures of habit, process, consistency. That Yankees brass have Volpe and Co. sufficiently invested in this new tech is, in and of itself, an enormous organizational win.
“We’re trying to be the best we can be,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “… We’re trying to win on the margins, and that shows up in so many different ways.”
Given the wave of hype generated by the Yankees’ torrent of taters this weekend, other clubs are certain to commence or accelerate their own testing of torpedo bats. Going forward, curiosity will surely win the day.
Asked how many organizations besides the Yankees are toying with bat optimization, one high-ranking front-office person from another team offered a witty, revealing response:
“After this weekend? Roughly 29.”