Should the 'torpedo' bat be banned?

After the first week of Major League games, the main talking point around the league is the rise of the “torpedo bat”. Many players around baseball have begun to use these new bats, but the success of the New York Yankees has been the most prolific. They made headlines after they hit nine home runs in a 20-run outburst against the Brewers.

The bat was designed by Aaron Leanhardt, a physicist from MIT who worked with the Yanks for two years and is now employed by the Marlins. It aims to increase production from the sweet spot and distribute the weight there instead of the suboptimal parts of the bat.

This design makes the bats look strange to the eye, as instead of maintaining uniform thickness across the bat, it bubbles in the middle of the barrel.

The Yankees’ success has sparked debate around the league regarding the legality of these bats. Here, we’ll take a look at both sides of the argument.

Yes, they should be banned

This may not be as much of a call to action to Major League Baseball as it is a realistic idea of what could happen if the torpedo bats keep taking off.

Of course, everyone now knows how the torpedo bats have gotten this popular. The Yankees made one for Anthony Volpe to help him not get jammed as much on swings.

He would hit a home run on Opening Day to lead New York past Milwaukee. Then more players like Jazz Chisholm, Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells jumped on the trend and the Yankees' offense really took off.

New York has gone deep 18 times through the first four games of the season. They broke the previous record of 16 by the 2006 Detroit Tigers and came within seven runs of breaking the most runs scored in their franchise’s history, which still stands at 48 by the 1950 team.

While there may be no issue with the bats being used according to the MLB rulebook, issues may arise from other sources. Teams and pitchers have become unhappy with the instant success of the Yankees and other players across the league with these new bats.

Pitcher Matt Strahm brought up an interesting point that if pitchers are no longer able to use foreign substances to enhance their pitch grips, hitters should not be able to use new bats to help them.

These new bats are obviously helping out hitters, so if pitchers aren’t able to do anything anymore to help them, it’s unfair that the torpedo bat is legal.

No, they should remain legal

Every team has the ability to legally use these torpedo bats, as they are within MLB’s bat guidelines. Although the Yankees have had the league’s most prolific offense after the first week of games largely off the backs of their players who have begun to utilize the bats, there are plenty of non-Yankees around the league who have tried them out with mixed success.

This is to say that the impact of the bats has been largely overstated. While Volpe may have popped three home runs already, those are his only three hits so far. Francisco Lindor of the Mets is using a torpedo bat and has just a single hit on his ledger. The Phillies’ Alec Bohm has just one extra-base hit to this point, and that was before he even switched to the new bat.

The Yankees did most of their damage against a beleaguered Brewers pitching staff, which is currently relying on a plethora of rookies and inexperienced arms, and a few of their home runs would only have left the yard in the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium.

If the Yankees had not seen such immediate success with their bats, nobody would be talking about these bats.

While the bats may benefit some players in the game who have slower swings but a propensity for hitting the ball hard, they mostly only help players who fall within these specific swing parameters.

Unlike steroids or corked bats, these new torpedo bats are not made for everyone and could even be detrimental to a player’s health or success. Giancarlo Stanton’s elbow injuries seem to be stemming from him trying out the bat during the Yankees’ spring training games.

If torpedo bats truly provided an unfair advantage, we would expect widespread dominance by users. Instead, their mixed results suggest they are more of a tool that players must learn to wield effectively rather than an instant game-changer.

Until leaguewide data points to the torpedo bats becoming overpowered or immediately providing instant success to any player who uses them, I see no reason as to why they must be banned.

Chances are, the league is looking into this topic in far more detail than we are. New equipment always requires a deep dive by the league office, as Elly De La Cruz had his bat sensor investigated a few years back, and the same happened with Jeff McNeil’s knobless bat.

The league is not opposed to making sweeping rule changes, as we’ve seen with the foreign substance ban and the pitch clock, to name a few, so it remains to be seen if stricter bat guidelines or mandated or if this issue will be a distant memory by the end of the season. Either way, it’s a fun and interesting debate for the time being.

Dominick Pizzelanti is a second-year student dual-majoring in broadcast journalism and Spanish. To contact him, email dqp5565@psu.edu.

Chase Fisher is a first-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email ctf5198@psu.edu.