Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson is a two-time All-Star and a two-time Silver Slugger. During a splendid 2023 season, he led all of baseball with 54 homers and 139 RBIs. He built his impressive resume by swinging a typical bat, with the barrel near the end, same as they’ve appeared for more than a century.
But even a hitter of his stature, one with little reason to experiment, took notice over the weekend when the New York Yankees went viral for walloping the Milwaukee Brewers with a torrent of home runs. Some of them were hit by players wielding an innovation from a former team employee and a one-time MIT physicist, who reimagined the field-legal bats to be shaped more like a torpedo.
“Guys are going to be trying it out now. … I might try it to just feel what it’s like,” said Olson, who noted that personal preference would be among many factors to consider.
The torpedo bats have been the talk of baseball since Saturday, when the Yankees bashed a franchise-record nine home runs against the Brewers, and YES Network announcer Michael Kay clued in viewers during the second inning of the broadcast. The Yankees front office had analyzed Anthony Volpe’s at-bats, Kay said, and found he was making more contact on the label, slightly below the barrel.
“So they had bats made up, where they moved a lot of the wood into the label,” Kay said, with New York leading Milwaukee early. “So the harder part of the bat is actually going to strike the ball.”
The Yankees went on to a 20-9 win, and for an encore on Sunday, New York tacked on four more homers in a 12-3 triumph to complete a three-game sweep. Whether the power surge was the result of new equipment or hot hitters, the weekend served as a live infomercial. Their 15 home runs in their first three games tied an MLB record.
Most home runs in first three games of season:
2006 Tigers: 152025 Yankees: 14
2019 Dodgers: 13
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) March 30, 2025
And following the Yankees’ 32 runs over their past two games, consciousness of the new model is rising, and more players are open to seeing if it works. Even some agents have noticed an uptick in calls from their clients, inquiring about how to get their hands on the new bats.
“It seems like it’s making its way around MLB,” said Angels infielder Nicky Lopez, who spent spring training with the Cubs, where he said they utilized the bats as well.
“It’s definitely not just the Yankees. I think we’re gonna see more people — it’s legal. It’s under MLB rules and everything. Just basically moving the sweet spot down. Those balls that you’re getting jammed on, are finding some barrels.”
While the Yankees might use them the most, they and the Cubs are not the only teams with access to the torpedoes. Multiple members of the Minnesota Twins, including Ryan Jeffers, use the bats. Blue Jays utilityman Davis Schneider uses one. So too does Rays infielder Junior Caminero.
Before the start of the 2025 season, use of the bats and knowledge of their existence seemed to vary from team to team. White Sox manager Will Venable said he only heard of them on Saturday but added that “everyone across the league probably now is going to be looking into using these.”
The Red Sox knew about the bats and even utilized them at times in spring training. But manager Alex Cora said none of their players are batting with them as the games start to count.
The Cubs have been doing their own research on this type of bat dating to last season. One player said the front office relayed that using the bats will result in an increased exit velocity.
“It will get plenty of attention now,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch on Saturday. “The internet has a beautiful way of bringing things to be a big deal. I hadn’t paid a ton of attention to it really until today.”
But the torpedo bats, it seems, have been lingering in the background for a few years.
The first iterations of the bats seem to stem from Aaron Leanhardt, the MIT physicist who now works for the Marlins but had been with the Yankees in player development. Padres outfielder Brandon Lockbridge had been in the Yankees organization with Leanhardt and recalled him developing the bats around 2022. They were made available to players in the minors, and Lockbridge remembers seeing them at the team’s minor-league complex.
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
“They weren’t a hot commodity,” Lockbridge recalled.
Leonhardt kept evangelizing anyway. He offered presentations to interested players, advocating the reasons for change. Lockbridge recalled that the focus was less on improving exit velocities — which have become a basic measure of success for hitters — and more on making increased contact.
“His big thing was like, guys that just swing-and-miss by a fraction of an inch, you’re now fouling off, staying alive,” Lockbridge said. “Because there’s more barrel there, your mis-hits can be closer to a barrel or maximize that.”
Some who did try the new bat said it felt weird. Lockbridge himself used the bats in spring training dating to 2022, though he has stuck with his typical equipment during games. But others have taken a chance. The bats were initially used in real games last season. Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger said up to five of his teammates are currently utilizing the new lumber.
“I guess this is like a turning point,” Lockbridge said. “It’s kind of been going public the last couple days. So we’ll kind of see how it goes. I’ve heard a couple guys chirping around saying (to bat people), ‘I need you to order me a couple of those torpedo bats.”
One veteran Phillies hitter said a bat manufacturing company named B45 — chaired by former Dodgers closer Eric Gagne — brought a model with similar weight distribution to their camp in spring training. He wrote it off as a fad at the time, but called his bat guy after the Yankees’ outburst on Saturday.
“I think it’s really smart,” said Angels outfielder Taylor Ward, who hadn’t heard of the bats until their viral moment over the weekend. “It makes sense, where guys constantly hit the ball on the bat. I think it’s an amazing discovery.”
If a study revealed that this new bat worked best for his contact tendencies, Ward said, he “would absolutely listen and consider adjusting what I swing, for sure.”
Ultimately, the bat will not be for everyone. The veteran Phillies hitter said he believed that prototypical sluggers might be less inclined to use one. Aaron Judge uses a normal bat, for example, and hit three of those aforementioned nine long balls on Saturday. The reigning AL MVP signaled on Sunday that he had no intention of changing. There’s also the concern, Olson said, of pitchers adapting and inducing more end-of-bat contact.
There are others, with a more old-school mindset, who might be against a change out of principle.
“When I got jammed, I figured out what I had to do to stop that,” said Angels manager Ron Washington, a longtime coach and player. “So I didn’t worry about putting more weight in a certain area of the bat.”
The bats are legal, though. MLB rules only require that the bat is smooth, with a round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. And a league spokesperson confirmed to The Athletic over the weekend that the new bats don’t stray outside of the rules.
Within the league, part of the conversation around the bats involved speculation about whether their usage would become widespread. Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth, who is a member of the union’s executive subcommittee, acknowledged that while he hasn’t used them, “there’s no reason not to try it.”
It wasn’t until the final weeks of spring training that Jazz Chisholm Jr. ever picked up the bat. He used Volpe’s lumber during a game and hit a double. He used it again the next game and hit a home run. At that point, it was decided: this was his new bat.
He’s not really sure of the science behind it. Or if the advantage is legitimate or just mental. But if MLB players believe it works, then its usage may only increase.
Chisholm on Sunday swatted a pair of homers. He was swinging the torpedo.
“I feel like it gives you the feeling like you have more to work with,” he said. “You probably don’t have more to work with, but it feels like it. It gives you that extra confidence in your head to go out there and hit anything.”
— The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen, David O’Brien, Matt Gelb, Jen McCaffrey, Dan Hayes, Sahadev Sharma, Britt Ghiroli and Dennis Lin contributed reporting to this story.
(Top photo: Mike Stobe / Getty Images)
