As the New York Yankees set a new franchise record with nine home runs in their 20-9 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, the attention of players, fans and scientists alike was set on something else: the bats.
Different from most, Yankees players like shortstop Anthony Volpe and third basemen Jazz Chisholm Jr. uses a bat commonly known as a “torpedo bat,” named for its torpedo-esque appearance.
Although this wouldn’t be a generally controversial change in the game of baseball, the effects of using a torpedo bat are now being analyzed and reviewed, coming off of a dominant showing by Yankees players who used them.
The introduction of the torpedo bat to the Yankees clubhouse came after the aforementioned shortstop, Anthony Volpe, met with a scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world’s most prestigious universities, especially within the realm of scientific and technological advancements.
Aaron Leanhardt, currently the field coordinator for the Miami Marlins, graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in electrical engineering before enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From there, he graduated with a doctorate in physics, and began to change the world of baseball.
Before his role of field coordinator with the Marlins, he previously worked within the analytics department of the New York Yankees, where he met with players such as Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe, to discuss how analytics can be used to help them play better.
In Volpe’s case, this came in the form of a new baseball bat.
Leanhardt worked with Volpe to create a new bat, catered to his swing mechanics and points of contact.
The end result? A new bat with a change in weight distribution, allowing for the sweet spots of bats to have a greater surface area, creating the notable “torpedo” shape of the bat.
Since its incorporation into baseball, some of the sport’s biggest stars are making the switch, such as Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge, Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson and Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper.
The introduction of the torpedo bat to Major League Baseball was loud and disruptive, especially when considering the Yankees’ sudden ability to hit home runs en masse. But will this be the case for every team? Will there be players who stick with their original bats? Only time can tell in the ever changing world of baseball.
