The New York Yankees may have introduced the next big thing in hitting to the baseball world during Saturday’s 20-9 drubbing of the Milwaukee Brewers.
As the Yankees mashed a franchise-record nine home runs in the win, a notable change to the Bronx Bombers’ bat was pointed out by YES Network’s play-by-play broadcaster Michael Kay.
“The Yankee front office, the analytics department, did a study on Anthony Volpe, and every single ball it seemed like he hit on the label,” Kay said during the broadcast. “He didn’t hit any on the barrel, 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.”
New York’s invention wasn’t newly introduced for Saturday’s slugfest, but it caught the attention of baseball fans league-wide, who wondered if this new development was even legal.
Well, as an MLB spokesperson explained to The Athletic‘s Chris Kirschner, the shape of the bats doesn’t violate any league rules.
MLB Rule 3.02 states that “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.” Additionally, “experimental” bats can’t be used “until the manufacturer has secured approval from Major League Baseball of his design and methods of manufacture.”
The bats are clearly something that have been in the works in the Yankees organization, as former Toronto Blue Jays and New York infielder Kevin Smith took to social media to explain the purpose of the “Torpedo” barrel.
“The Yankees have a literal genius MIT Physicist (Aaron Leanhardt) on payroll,” the recently retired Smith explained. “He invented the ‘Torpedo’ barrel. It brings more wood — and mass — to where you most often make contact as a hitter. The idea is to increase the number of ‘barrels’ and decrease misses.”
Leanhardt has joined the Miami Marlins as a field coordinator since Smith’s time in the Bronx.
“They also feel a little lighter, there’s more weight closer to your hands so you can swing a heavier bat,” he added. “It kind of feels like those old wiffle ball bats you used as a kid, the barrel feels MASSIVE the first time you pick it up. But it’s really not THAT big.”
Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, Austin Wells, Volpe and Jazz Chisholm Jr. all homered Saturday using the strikingly different model. Chisholm homered twice more in Sunday’s 12-3 win as the Yankees combined for 15 home runs in the series, tying the MLB record for most in a three-game span.
“The concept makes so much sense. I know I’m bought in,” Volpe said. “The bigger you can have the barrel where you hit the ball, it makes sense to me.”
Bellinger was first presented with the torpedo-shape concept in a batting practice session last season with the Chicago Cubs but did not use it in a game. He was given a more advanced version during spring training this year.
“I started swinging this one in spring or before spring, kind of early on, and I was like, ‘Oh, it feels good,’” Bellinger said. “It was an ounce lighter than the one I was swinging, but I think the way the weight was distributed felt really good.”
Bellinger, the 2019 NL MVP with the Los Angeles Dodgers, switched from a maple Louisville Slugger to a birch bat and cited MLB’s 2010 rule change narrowing the maximum diameter from 2.75 inches.
“I’m usually a maple guy, but birch for me allows me to get the bigger barrel because I wasn’t grandfathered in,” Bellinger said. “So it’s all within regulation. They made sure that before the season even started, knowing that I imagine at some point the way these bats look that it’s probably going to get out at some point.”
But not every Yankee is choosing to make the switch.
Kirschner reported Sunday that two-time AL MVP Aaron Judge has “less than zero interest” in swinging a torpedo bat.
“What I did the past couple of seasons speaks for itself. Why try to change something if you have something that’s working?” Judge said.
Hard to argue after his three-homer, eight-RBI performance on Saturday. Judge hit his fourth home run of the season on Sunday.
The bats have found their way into hitters’ hands across the league, including in Toronto. MLB.com’s Mitch Bannon shared that he spoke with Blue Jays’ Davis Schneider, who is also using the bat to start the season.
“It’s a big-ass barrel and I like big barrels,” Schneider said.
Predictably, not everyone is in love with the idea of hitters getting an extra advantage.
“I think it’s terrible,” Brewers reliever Trevor Megill told The New York Post. “We’ll see what the data says. I’ve never seen anything like it before… 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.”
The innovation clearly paid off for the Yankees this weekend, and if MLB continues to allow the use of the new design, we might see a major shift in what hitters across baseball take to the plate moving forward.
— With files from the Associated Press
