The Yankees’ Torpedo Bat Isn’t Breaking Baseball: It’s Just the Next Chapter
When the Yankees launched nine home runs this past Saturday on Opening Weekend 2025 — five of them using what’s now being called the torpedo bat — the baseball world outside of the Bronx lost its mind.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Brewers closer Trevor Megill. “It looks like a slow-pitch softball bat. It’s wild.”
They called it weird. They called it a gimmick. Some even questioned its legality.
Spoiler: it is.
MLB approved the torpedo bat because it fits every rule in the book — one-piece wood, under 2.61 inches in diameter, and no longer than 42 inches. It may look unconventional, but it’s legal.
Mookie Betts with the “axe” bat
And this isn’t the first time the baseball bat has evolved. Over the past 25 years, baseball bats have evolved more than most fans realize.
In the early 2000s, maple bats started to replace ash. There were concerns it would alter the balance of the game — especially when Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs with one — albeit under the cloud of performance-enhancing allegations.
In the 2010s, the axe handle entered the league. Players like Mookie Betts and Kris Bryant embraced the improved grip and wrist protection. It looked different but stayed within the lines.
In 2018, Jeff McNeil started swinging a bat without a knob — a subtle shift in weight and comfort. He hit .329. No one raised an issue.
Now in 2025, Yankees hitters are using a design that shifts the barrel’s mass closer to the hands — a profile meant to improve balance, increase control, and tailor the effective hitting zone to the hitter. It’s not a loophole. It's a strategy.
Cody Bellinger, one of the early adopters — whose Cubs tested the bats last spring but passed — explained: “The weight is closer to my hands... that was the biggest benefit.”
Other teams are already experimenting. Junior Caminero of the Rays used one in a pinch-hit appearance. And Orioles hitting coach Cody Asche acknowledged: “We have some guys that have dabbled with them.”
This isn’t cheating. It’s evolution. And baseball has always evolved — sometimes slowly, sometimes with nine home runs in a single game.
So let’s pump the brakes on the outrage. If your team isn’t searching for every legal edge to improve, that’s not tradition — that’s complacency.
The Yankees saw an opportunity and moved first. And like any good market efficiency, the rest of the league is already catching up — just like we saw Sunday and Monday.