What to make of MLB’s torpedo bats: Valuable new technology or an early-season fad?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the biggest story of the first week of the 2025 MLB season is “torpedo bats,” the oddly shaped lumber that burst onto the scene thanks to the Yankees’ offensive explosion over the weekend and have continued to dominate baseball conversations this week.

Are these bats a fad or valuable technology that is here to stay? What else do we need to know about this phenomenon? And where does the sport go from here?

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Let’s jump in.

1. Is the torpedo bats craze good for the game?

Mintz: Absolutely. It remains to be seen how much of a needle-mover the new equipment actually is, but I’m here for any type of technological innovation. In time, I think it will have a negligible impact on the sport, as pitchers learn to adjust their game plans when facing players using these bats. Like a variety of other equipment fads throughout the sport’s history, the popularity of torpedo bats will ebb and flow. But is it good for the game? Yes. I think anything odd, new, news-worthy and different that gets people chatting about baseball is good for the game.

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Shusterman: It’s too early to know because we don’t have nearly enough data to determine the degree to which these bats are meaningfully altering the on-field product. But the idea that hitters are finding ways within the rules to take advantage of technology that helps them succeed against the best pitchers in the world? That’s a great thing, as far as I’m concerned, and it’s a natural, intriguing response to the huge strides made by pitchers via technology and innovations, which have resulted in a drastic uptick in swing-and-miss in the sport over the past decade.

If hitting a baseball is considered the most difficult thing to do in sports — and making contact has only become more challenging in recent years — it’s no surprise that smart people in and around the game have been experimenting with any possible way to improve hitters’ chances. These bats are a fascinating outcome of such experimentation.

Dorsey: Let’s take a deep breath here. It has been one week, and most players have been using these bats for only a few months, starting during spring training. Asking if torpedo bats are good for the game, as if they will somehow change baseball, is a little extreme at this point. That said, innovation is never a bad thing, and just as pitchers have found new ways and data points to improve, hitters have the right to do that with their bats.

2. What was your initial reaction when you saw the torpedo bat?

Mintz: I was somewhat underwhelmed. In person, the visual isn’t as striking as you’d expect. It’s noticeable, sure, but bats like this have been in use around baseball, both in practice and in games, for a little while now. There’s always funky-looking equipment lying around the clubhouse. I will say, though, of all the pictures of the torpedo bats that have come out, the one Jazz Chisholm Jr. was using looks the most extreme.

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Shusterman: They looked especially unusual when shown at certain angles on TV and less remarkable on others. I’m looking forward to seeing them in person for the first time to get a better sense of how different these bats actually are. Honestly, my first major takeaway was astonishment that these were being unveiled for the first time en masse in the regular season (even though some hitters used them last year), rather than during spring training, a more natural time to tinker with things.

Dorsey: It’s really not that much different from your standard bat. I’ve seen a few in person, and if you aren’t really paying attention, you might not even notice. I think some people have seen photoshopped versions of what these bats look like, and they’ve created an image in their mind that’s not like the real version.

3. Is this real innovation or overblown hype?

Mintz: Both. The onrush of attention surrounding the bats during the season’s opening week is purely hype and a product of the Yankees’ talented lineup demolishing an undermanned Brewers pitching staff. But the tech itself is compelling and, more importantly, intuitive. It will be beneficial to certain types of hitters while hurting other, overly curious hitters whose swings aren’t a match for these bats.

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What’s most interesting to me — and most innovative — is the idea of custom bat fittings. The idea of scientifically engineering the club to the player is commonplace in golf. Such a process also exists in baseball, but I expect it to skyrocket in popularity over the coming weeks and months.

Shusterman: We don’t quite know how effective these bats will be over a larger sample, but it’s impossible to deny that they qualify as significant innovation, considering the basic fact that bats have been shaped the same way for decades, and now we’re seeing a dramatic physical change that is visible enough to attract attention and inspire curiosity. How much of a difference the bats make is still to be determined, but the outsized response from the baseball world and beyond speaks volumes to how this seemingly small change is resonating with people.

Dorsey: It’s overblown hype because players have been making alterations and customizing their bats for decades. Remember the axe handle craze? How about the hockey knob? Each is designed to help players not only feel comfortable but also get the bat through the zone as quickly as possible. If the Yankees hadn’t kicked the crap out of the Brewers over the weekend, this wouldn’t be a story. And the Brewers gave up 11 runs to the Royals the day after they left Yankee Stadium, so maybe the Yankees just feasted on some bad pitching. I’m not getting caught up in a trend and coincidence; call me when we have a significant sample of data.

4. What questions do you still have about torpedo bats?

Mintz: I’m curious about how much say teams vs. players vs. bat manufacturers have in the design process. I’m also fascinated to see whether teams will start trying to make their own proprietary bats. As of now, the process varies player to player, depending on the bat company who sponsors them.

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In regard to information, a significant sample size of batted-ball data is a first step. Are the players who use these bats recording more barrels and a higher average exit velocity than they did last season? How are pitchers adjusting their approaches when facing those players? Are certain types of hitters better fits for torpedo bats than others? We don’t know yet.

Shusterman: If we end up getting a large enough sample of data, I’m curious about a few things. Are the bats helping players make more contact overall, or are they strictly enhancing the quality of the contact to enable more slugging? What types of hitters — hulking sluggers looking to make more contact or skinny contact merchants searching for more power — are more likely to succeed with these bats? It might be difficult to keep track of exactly when and where torpedo bats are being deployed across the league, but it’ll certainly be on everyone’s radar moving forward. Most importantly, we need to get beyond the image of the Yankees blasting a billion homers against Milwaukee and start to gather some additional data.

Dorsey: At the very least, I’d like to see a season’s worth of batted-ball data that shows what type of impact these bats had on performance. Average exit velocity, contact percentage and barrel percentage are where I would start. But I don’t know how realistic it will be to acquire that, with players having multiple bat models from different companies available to them.

5. Where do you think things will go from here?

Mintz: More teams and players will start deploying torpedo bats, a process that has already begun. The league will keep a sharp eye on things to make sure nobody is stepping over the line. But I feel pretty confident that there will be no significant adjustments to the rules — rules that the Yankees and other torpedo bat users have not broken.

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Honestly, I think this particular fad fades by the end of April, at least in the big leagues. But for the bat manufacturers, most of whom have now made these torpedo bats available for purchase, this craze presents a very welcome windfall.

Shusterman: I think we’ll have an enormous wave of players trying them out, and some will quickly have success and stick with them, while others will ditch the bat after a couple of hitless games because they just want to be comfortable. What’s most troubling and challenging in terms of evaluating the bat’s impact is that a bat isn’t the only thing impacting the offensive environment; the ball is a major factor as well. In recent years, we’ve seen a livelier baseball in some seasons, with the record-shattering home run bonanza of 2019 — when teams averaged an all-time-high 1.39 HR per game — the most glaring example. If these new bats really do become mainstream, it’ll be interesting to monitor the HR/G rate (among other league-wide offensive marks) relative to recent years, but it’s important to remember that the ball could be a big part of the equation as well.

Dorsey: More players will test the torpedo bats to see if they want to use them. But this probably leaves everyday conversation in the next few weeks as the story of the season rolls on. There won’t be a rule change, as the torpedo bat dimensions are well within MLB guidelines. And I’m skeptical about how many players would actually want to switch bats during the season. Players are really finicky when it comes to hitting. They like what feels good, and I think a majority of players will take the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” stance. Then I’d expect to see more players test torpedo bats during the offseason and spring training next year.