The New York Yankees set a Major League Baseball record, hitting 17 home runs in the first four games of the 2025 season, dividing fans and setting the baseball world on fire.
Fans of the sport were baffled at the explosive Yankees’ offense, specifically because of their brand new baseball bats, nicknamed the “Torpedo Bats” for their torpedo-esque shape.
A few individual players that have hugely benefited from these new bats are Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. and catcher Austin Wells. Volpe has slashed .297/.366/.703 to begin the season, which is a massive improvement from his first two seasons in the majors. Chisholm has slashed .237/.310/.605 and Wells has slashed .207/.314/.517. All three players have seen an over .100 point increase in OPS (on base percentage+slugging percentage), which initially led many fans to suspect foul play.
Following New York’s offensive eruption against the Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds’ star shortstop Elly De La Cruz started using the new bat and went off for two home runs and seven RBIs.
According to the AP, the torpedo bat differs from regular baseball bats in the position of the barrel or sweet spot. The torpedo bat pushes the barrel closer to the handle, so players who often get weak contact towards the handle now hit the sweet spot on the usual poor contact swing.
The basic shape of bats has remained the same since before the 1870s when the first official rules on baseball bats were made.
There has been a great debate in the baseball community about whether or not these bats should be legal. According to the MLB rulebook, these bats are permitted. The official MLB rule book states, “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,” making the torpedo bats completely legal.
Despite the legality, some are still outraged by the new bats. One of the people not happy about the new bat is Brewers’ pitcher Trevor Megill.
The Brewers’ right-hander told The New York Post, “I think it’s terrible. We’ll see what the data says. I’ve never seen anything like it before…It might be bush [league]. It might not be. But it’s the Yankees, so they’ll let it slide.”
Despite Megill’s clear unhappiness with the torpedo bats, they could be pretty valuable to the growth of the game. The offense in the MLB has been struggling mightily over the last 20 years and torpedo bats may be a way to boost offensive numbers.
In 2005, the Major League average triple lash line was .264/.330/.419 and in 2024 it was a measly .243/.312/.399. As of April 7, the 2025 torpedo bat-using Yankees are triple-slashing .285/.365/.585.
While these numbers are outlandishly high, this could be the first step in revitalizing hitting in the MLB. Baseball fans are still very much divided on whether that’s a good or a bad thing. Baseball purists will tell you that the bats are disrespecting the way the game is meant to be played, but in the opinion of these two pitchers, the bats make baseball more interesting, and they fit within the rules.
Truth be told, the players using the new bats will probably regress to the mean due to the current sample size of their production being so small. However, if they don’t, there’s nothing wrong with players finding ways to fix their shortcomings.
While the discourse regarding the new torpedo bats has been polarizing to say the least, if they fit within the MLB rulebook, there’s no reason to crack down on them, and we should simply just let the kids play.
Editor’s Note: Belkin and Nash both pitch for the Gators baseball team
