The Yankees’ torpedo bats have been the talk of Major League Baseball over the first weekend of the season, and for good reason.
The Yankees slugged an all-time record-tying 15 home runs in their three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers, with players like Jazz Chisholm Jr., Anthony Volpe, Cody Bellinger, and Paul Goldschmidt all going yard while using the newly designed lumber.
But with the Yankees’ early success in using these bats have come detractors, including Brewers’ reliever Trevor Megill, who called the bats “something used in slow-pitch softball.”
On Monday morning, Chisholm, who homered three times in the first three games, fired back via social media.
“Okay explanation the barrel is bigger and within mlb regulation!,” Chisholm posted on X. “For the idiots that say it’s moved to the label you’re an idiot! Nobody is trying to get jammed you just move the wood from the parts you don’t use to the parts you do! You’re welcome no more stress for y’all !”
Like many hitters in the Yankees’ lineup, Chisholm is off to a tremendous start, slashing .417/.500/1.167 through three games with three home runs and six RBI, all while using a torpedo-style bat.
The torpedo bats, designed by Aaron Leanhardt, a former member of the Yankees analytics department who now works for the Miami Marlins, take wood away from parts of the bat, like the handle, to create and elongated barrel with more mass.
The bats came into the national spotlight on Saturday, when the Yankees blasted nine home runs and put 20 runs on the board in a win over the Brewers.
As Chisholm said, the bats have been deemed legal by MLB officials, and we’ve already seen other players around the league, like Minnesota Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers, using them as well.
And with all of the early success the Bombers have had at the dish, it’s fair to expect that a large number of players around baseball will at least test out using these new bats. In fact, Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic reports that "several" Baltimore Orioles players are using them, though none of the bats look "quite as jarring" as the ones Chisholm is using.