With the opening of the 2025 MLB season, the New York Yankees were quick to launch into success. During their second game of the season, the team’s first three batters hit home runs on the first three pitches thrown their way, contributing to a final score of 20-9 over the Milwaukee Brewers. The impressive score raised eyebrows, prompting a closer look at the game—where the Yankees’ bats quickly became the center of attention.

As it turned out, the Yankees had been using a bat with an unconventional design. With a wider, more bulbous barrel, the Yankees “torpedo bat” took center stage. This design features many unique elements that combine to create a near-unstoppable bat, one that has the potential to create a substantial impact on MLB and the strategies utilized by its batters and pitchers.

“Personally I see the bat as interesting and potentially a starting point in a new dynamic of a predator/prey dynamic between hitters and pitchers,” Case Western Reserve University physics professor Jonathan Boyd said. “The relationship has existed previously … but this is a new tool in that dynamic that evolved and could make decisions for pitching and hitting more intricate in the long term.”

Taking a look at the design itself, what makes a torpedo bat unique is its distinctive shape: a tapered tip with a bulbous barrel positioned closer to the handle. This barrel is bigger than the standard one and positioned closer to the center of the bat, creating a bowling pin-esque design; this has led some to alternatively refer to the new design as the “bowling pin bat.” Either way, this change in the design—and subsequent changes in the overall design to account for the change in weight distribution—results in the torpedo bat having more mass concentrated in the region of the bat where batters would expect to make contact with the ball. 

Boyd further explained the implications of this design from a physics perspective.

“First, it changes the moment of inertia of the bat, meaning batters can potentially reach faster bat speeds while still applying the same torque, and second, it can change the amount of mass at the point of contact, impacting the collision mechanics that happen when the bat and ball make contact,” he explained.

The design was created by Aaron Leanhardt, a field coordinator for the Miami Marlins who holds a PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In creating the design, Leanhardt sought to address a common complaint from numerous players: that pitchers had been getting better than ever, giving batters fewer opportunities to succeed during the game. This inspired the idea of elongating the barrel—the fat part of the bat that generates the hardest and most contact—and thus leading to the creation of the torpedo bat.

The Yankees’s blowout victory is already showing its impact across the league. Numerous players across several teams have begun using the new bat in play, oftentimes with staggering results. For instance, Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz used the bat to go 4-for-5 in two home runs and seven runs batted in during a March 31 game against the Texas Rangers, helping the Reds achieve a 14-3 blowout. Other players confirmed to be using the torpedo bat include Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Davis Schneider and Minnesota Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers, among others amidst the growing number of players adopting the bat for play.

As the torpedo bat rises in popularity, its true impact—and whether or not it will become the new go-to bat in MLB—remains disputed. While the design certainly contributed to the Yankees’s victory, it is also worth noting that while Yankees using the torpedo bat scored a combined nine home runs across the team’s first three games, Yankee outfielder Aaron Judge achieved four home runs himself across those three games without using the torpedo bat. Similarly, some players have struggled with the torpedo bat, such as New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor. 

Nonetheless, it is all but guaranteed that the torpedo bat’s usage will continue to increase as more players take notice of its design advantages and attempt to use those advantages to improve their quality of play.

“Playing within the rules while designing something new challenges our assumptions and can lead to cool new interactions,” Boyd said. “It is going to be interesting to see how the dynamics evolve.”