Torpille bats make a lot of noise – but they have been quietly in MLB for a few years

Two days after the offensive burst of New York Yankees in the Bronx made the Baseball Speech Battes, Cincinnati Reds The Elly Cruz stop-to-the Cruz decided to try one for the first time in practice in the stick. At the end of the rout 14-3 of the Rangers of the Texas Rangers on Monday evening, the 23-year-old slugger used it to go 4 for 5 with two circuits, a double and seven points produced.

“I just wanted to know if it was good,” he said, “and it’s really the case.”

But while bats have only recently become a major scenario through the league, it turns out only experiences with unique battles that caused a national outcry over the weekend have really passed quietly through baseball-and for a long time.

“It has become viral,” said the director of New York Mets, Carlos Mendoza on Monday. “But it’s nothing new to us.”

Aaron Leanhardt, a 48-year-old Miami Marlins coach was credited by many of being the brain behind bats, who were first highlighted when Yankees players used them in a nine o’clock franchise record and a 20-9 victory against Brewers Milwaukee on Saturday.

“There were certainly major league players who swung him in the big leagues in 2023,” said Leanhardt on Monday. “As well as some minor league players who swung him in real baseball matches in 2023, and he built himself a little throughout 2024 in what he is today.”

Bats will no longer be under the radar. Players in all sport began to ask manufacturers their own bations for bats. The retailers began to sell them to the public online. Chandler Bats now offers a model designed for the third basic player of Yankees Jazz Chisholm Jr. for $ 239 per Bat. Victus offers three models, one of a signature version of Anthony Volpe, while Marucci has a Francisco Lindor “Torpedo Pro” drum.

Bats differ from traditional models because of their torpedo shape, which comes from the redistribution of its weight so that the densest part, or the “sweet spot”, closer to the handle.

Birch seems to be the favorite wood of bats, which have been designed to help strikers establish more true contact at a time when more and more launchers are launching 100 MPH and offer more nasty repertoires than ever thanks to technical and analytical progress.

Major League Baseball said that bats were completely in its rules.

“It’s a bit exciting,” said Max Muncy, Los Angeles interior field player Max Mancy. “We just had a long conversation on (how) in the 170 years and whatever what baseball has been, the number of changes to the baseball bat was minimal.”

For decades, most players have swept dry bats until Barry Bond went to popularize maple-boiled bats in the late 1990s and in the early 2000s.

“I mean,” said Muncy, “everyone swept Ash for 140 years, then you had a Maple Swing Maple, then they went out with Birch, and really, it was all the changes. There were different forms, but there were not really drastic as maybe what is now.”

The media threshing around bats made an unusual scene at Loandepot Park on Monday. The Marlins made Leanhardt available to journalists outside their canoe. When he was with the Yankees last season, Leanhardt did not speak to the media.

“There are many more cameras here today than usual,” he said. “… it’s definitely surreal for a few days.”

Leanhardt – Through conversations with coaches, players, MLB and Bat companies – developed prototypes that finally landed in the hands of Yankees players. Chisholm, Volpe, Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells are among the Yankees that use them this season. However, the right defender Aaron Judge – perhaps the best power striker of the game – said he will not.

In a video published on Instagram, Brett Laxton, a bat manufacturer for Marucci Sports and a former Grandagiste, said that the Bogneur des Yankees Giancarlo Stanton used one of their torpedo bats when he struck seven circuits in the playoffs last year. The recruit Jasson Domínguez also told journalists that Stanton had used one.

Trevino was with the Yankees last season. He said he had taken one for the first time in spring formation in 2024.

“At first I said to myself:” no question, “he said. “So I tried it. I liked it. “

Trevino then used them during training sessions and spring training matches before taking them to the regular season. He added that there is a complicated process to do bats. It begins with designers who take the model with which a player is already familiar and adjusts it. He said he had been able to order cannon sizes in small, medium and large.

“It aggravates your barrel where you want to hit the ball,” said Trevino.

“Perhaps Eureka’s moment was really when the players started to indicate where they were trying to hit the ball and they noticed that it was not the most serious part of the bat,” said Leanhardt. “They noticed that the council was the most serious part of the bat and everyone looked at themselves as:” Well, let’s go. Are you going to look silly, but are we ready to go with it? “”

“In the end, we were able to find guys who were ready to go with it.”

Although Word has quickly traveled around the game on the new style of bat, not everyone was sold on them.

“None of the players said anything about using them,” said Houston Astros manager Joe Espada. “I have never held the bat or seen one of them. I know that some of our guys in the minor leagues used them, but I will not comment on a baseball equipment that I have never seen.”

“I don’t have a big opinion,” said Reds manager Terry Francona. “I think if you go back and look where some of these locations were (thrown against the Yankees), it may not be the bat.”

“I suppose it is this craze,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I haven’t dug it. It’s certainly early, and there are people to talk about it, but I don’t think our guys swing this bat, so I don’t know what it is.”

Several players said they were on orders for their own torpedo bats after seeing the power of the Yankees during the weekend.

“I have learned absolutely nothing that they look like bowling pins,” said Hernández Dodgers Enrique. “I ordered I. All cool children do it. “

A real question remains: do they really make a difference?

“I think it is still to be discussed,” said Minnesota twins, Ryan Jeffers, who uses a torpedo bat. “I do not think it will be something that is an end, to everything, to everyone, that everyone will start to swing these bats and to become better strikers. I think it could work for some people and could not for others. For me, I give it a little trial period, I see how I love it. The thoughts behind them seem good, but I think there are a lot of testing.

“I had teammates last year (with the Yankees) who asked me if I wanted to try it, but that never caught my attention,” said law defender Mets Juan Soto, according to the New York Post. “But, yes, I would try it.”

And are they here to stay?

“I don’t know,” said Spencer Torkelson, Detroit Tigers first goal player. “I feel good with my bat at the moment. I’m not going to change anything. But maybe one day. “

“It could be one of those phases … who comes and goes,” said Jeffers. “I think time will tell us.”

– AthleticsC. Trent Rosecrans, Fabian Ardaya, Dan Hayes, Will Sammon, Chris Kirschner, Cody Stavenigen, Matt Gelb, Britt Ghiroli and Chandler Rome contributed to this story.

(Top photo of Elly de la Cruz: Jeff Dean / Getty Images)