With the wrap of the first month of the 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) a new type of baseball bat is trending on social media and popping up in sports news amid controversial chatter on sports fan sites 

The Torpedo Bat is a new bat designed by the New York Yankees minor league hitting coordinator, Aaron Leanhardt, a former MIT- educated physics professor.  The idea of the bat is simple, elongate the barrel of the bat where the most power comes from. Doing so increases the chances of squaring up a pitch for more effective power and contact.  

Reportedly, it all began in the 2023 season when Leanhardt started asking New York Yankees hitters what they needed to perform better.  

With a league-wide batting average the previous year at its lowest point in more than a half-century, Leanhardt approached that spring with a specific question. 

How, in an era ruled by pitching, could offense keep up?

“Players were frustrated by the fact that pitching had gotten so good,” Leanhardt said.

Enter, the torpedo bat. 

So far, for the Yankees, the physics professor’s theory has been successful.

Living up to the nickname “The Bronx Bombers”, the Yankees have done nothing but crush baseball’s first month of the season.  During their opening series against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Yankees hit a record breaking 15 home runs in a three-game series.  Including one game where the Yankees hit nine home runs in one game.  Baseball fans are no stranger to the Yankees crushing balls, but finding out they’re using a new bat has raised eyebrows. 

After the Arizona Diamondbacks came off their series against the Yankees and the Milwaukee Brewers, Northeast Valley News took to the scene at Chase Field to snag some fan reaction about torpedo bats.  

“These new torpedo bats are bush league. No MLB team should be able to just come up with a new equipment design after any rule change meetings are over,” said Brewers fan Ryan Olson with regard to watching his beloved team be on the wrong side of a historic opening weekend.

Baseball fans across the nation are questioning the bats and also bringing up other points of equity of play, “Is there a way to even the playing field for pitchers?”  Arizona State University student and baseball fan Anders Wessman told Northeast Valley News, “If the league is going to allow hitters to keep using Torpedo Bats, then I think they pitchers should be able to use sticky stuff again.”

Sticky stuff or Spider Tack was a substance used by MLB pitchers to help grip baseballs better to enhance the spin on pitches making the ball harder for batters to hit, leading to a decline in offense.  

One of the MLB’s biggest struggles has been the lack of “entertainment” along with the slower, longer and boring game for many fans. 

Daniel Lopez told Northeast Valley News, “Honestly, watching more home runs makes baseball way more enjoyable to watch.  Sometimes games can be boring to watch, but with these new bats adding more home runs— all the games have been exciting.” 

The Yankees officially launched the “torpedo bat” era in late March with multiple players using the modified bat in their opening series of the 2025 season.

Reportedly the wood of “the bat is shifted from the barrel towards the batter’s hands to create a custom sweet spot where contact is most frequently made. The reconfiguration gives the bat the shape of a torpedo — or a bowling pin, which doesn’t sound nearly as menacing or apropos.”

Some social media users and baseball fans have been vocal about the bats even saying they should be outlawed. 

The bats, however, are legal under MLB’s rules. 

More teams are now looking to add torpedo bats to their game.