Before he was putting his intellect to use crafting a baseball bat that would allow the New York Yankees to tie home run records, Aaron Leanhardt spent years studying and teaching physics.
Leanhardt is the mastermind behind the “torpedo” bat, which made headlines this season after the Yankees hit 15 home runs over their first three games, with nine of the homers coming from players using the bat design.
But the development of the uniquely shaped piece of lumber — it looks more like a bowling pin than a traditional bat, with a thicker middle and tapered end — wasn’t the result of a life spent around the game. Instead, it was the application of skills and knowledge that he cultivated in higher education.
Leanhardt received a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and spent seven years teaching physics at the University of Michigan before deciding to make the switch to baseball, according to a 2024 profile in the New York Post.
He started as a college baseball coach before being hired by the Yankees in 2018. Over his six seasons with the team, he rose through the ranks from its low-level affiliates to eventually being named the team’s major league analyst.
Yankees captain Aaron Judge told the Post that Leanhardt, who this season was hired by the Miami Marlins as a field coordinator, was an expert at breaking down complex data in a way that players could understand and act on.
His background in research and academia made him a quick study, too.
“From what I understand, he knew nothing about bats and in two weeks, he knew everything about bats,” said Padres outfielder Brandon Lockridge, who worked with Leanhardt in the past. “Just dove into it, researched it.”
The result of two years’ worth of work was the so-called torpedo bat. Though the bat made several appearances last season, the Yankees’ success in the opening weeks of the 2025 season has brought more attention to Leanhardt than ever before.
But in a press scrum interview this week, the 48-year-old MIT grad deflected any credit for homers that have been hit with torpedo bats.
“At the end of the day it’s about the batter, not the bat,” Leanhardt said. “It’s about the hitters and their hitting coaches, not their hitting implements. I’m happy to always help those guys get a little bit better, but ultimately it’s up to them to put good swings on good pitches.”
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