It started Saturday, when the New York Yankees hit a franchise record nine home runs and put up a 20-spot on the Milwaukee Brewers. We saw New York hitters using a bat that didn’t look like a normal baseball bat. The bat were shaped almost like candlepin bowling pins at the end: fatter artound the label and the sweet spot of the bat and tapering down toward the end.
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.”
Seems relevant today… pic.twitter.com/cpldzigdrT
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 29, 2025
But it hasn’t taken long for the news to spread and other hitters to get their hands on this new lumber. So what exactly do we know about this new style of bats?
They’ve Made It Into The Rays Clubhouse
The bats may have made their debut in the Bronx, but we know that at least one Rays hitter has them and is using them.
Third baseman Junior Caminero was spotted using the new style of bat in Sunday’s 6-4 win over the Rockies.
Caminero. Torpedo? pic.twitter.com/uBBaw6NxpH
— Rays Metrics (@RaysMetrics) March 30, 2025
Caminero confirmed after the game that he was using the new bat during his pinch-hit appearance, and said that he would continue using it, “sometimes.”
Junior Caminero was asked after the game if he was using one of those torpedo bats, and confirmed he will be using it, though perhaps not for every at bat. #Rays pic.twitter.com/EuVV2GfgOS
— Steve Carney (@stevecarney) March 31, 2025
Not Everyone Likes Them
While hitters may enjoy what comes out of using these new “torpedo” bats, it’s clear one group of players is not a fan of what may come from using this new technology: pitchers. Brewers reliever Trevor Megill was the first to go on the record with his displeasure with the New York Post.
Brewers reliever Trevor Megill has a problem with the Yankees’ new bats, he tells @nypost:
“I think it’s terrible. We’ll see what the data says. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I feel like it’s something used in slo-pitch softball.
It’s genius: Put the mass all in one… pic.twitter.com/0z3fiTPJ2j
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) March 30, 2025
Ironically one player that said he isn’t using a torpedo bat is a guy who has hit home runs as if he had been using one all along: Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge.
Aaron Judge, when asked why he hasn’t tried a Torpedo bat:
“What I’ve done the past couple of seasons speaks for itself.”
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) March 30, 2025
It Was Created By A Physicist (Who Has Taken His Talents To South Beach)
The man behind the torpedo bats is Aaron Leanhardt, a physicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Leanhardt, who was working in the Yankees analytics department, devised a bat that would be thicker at the “sweet spot” allowing for better contact and improved exit velocity.
Yes, the Yankees have a literal genius MIT Physicist, Lenny (who is the man), on payroll. 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. pic.twitter.com/CsC1wkAM9G
— Kevin Smith (@KJS_4) March 29, 2025
As of the time of this post, Leanhardt has left the Yankees, and is now employed by the Miami Marlins, working for a long-time member of the Rays brain trust: current Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix.
The Bats Are Legal
You may say they look weird, and you may side with the camp that includes Megill, Judge, and guys like Dave Portnoy (who went on social media calling for the banning of the bats), but the fact of the matter is that it isn’t going away.
According to a statement from a MLB spokesperson to Brendan Kuty of The Athletic, the bats fit the requirement of a legal bat as stated in Rule 3.02 (a) of the MLB rule book
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.
The rule does note that a bat should not be used in either regular season or exhibition seasons until “the manufacturer has secured approval from Major League Baseball of his design and methods of manufacture.” But with their use in games this regular season, it appears that approval was given by the league.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
