WOODBURY – With baseball season in full swing, rather than debate statistics or stars, today’s fans are debating the efficacy of baseball’s newest sensation: the torpedo bat. The torpedo bat is a slimmer styled bat around the barrel, making the barrel bigger, and allowing batters more surface to hit. There have been a lot of mixed opinions on the new torpedo bats MLB players have been using. Players that have been using it have been hitting the ball well. Can we eventually see this styled bat in aluminum for High School and/or college?
The physics of the torpedo bat design allow batters to hit more of the sweet spot.
“The sweet spot zone is the region where batters prefer to make contact, while the remainder of the bat is “garbage,” meaning that it contributes very little to the performance of the bat,” says Alan Nathan of Fangraphs, a baseball data collection database. “Continuing my qualitative discussion, there are two (and probably many more) generic schemes for moving mass from the barrel tip to the sweet spot. On the one hand, the fact that the mass of the bat is closer to the hands means that the “swing weight” (or, technically, the moment of inertia, or MOI, of the bat about the knob) will be reduced, resulting in a likely increase in the rotational velocity of the swing.”
Giancarlo Stanton used the torpedo bat during the 2024 postseason, though the repercussions of this impacted him this spring as he has since been diagnosed with double tennis elbow, a diagnosis remedied by injecting fluid in both of his elbows to try and avoid surgery but will still most likely be out for the whole 2025 season.
Despite injury scares to headline stars like Stanton, so far in 2025, players who have used this bat have been hitting home runs and barreling the ball up almost 40% of the time.
The bat was originally made for Yankees young shortstop, Anthony Volpe. He was barely missing the ball with the barrel of his bat by a small percentage so In an effort to help Volpe, the team had bats made that moved more of the wood closer to the label, so Volpe would make better, stronger contact on his swing.
Declan Curtain, former Athletic Director at Nonnewaug, thinks change is good.
“I think technology is always an interesting component when it comes to athletics and improvements”, said Curtain. “Safety will always be a concern when it comes to baseball bats. Adjustments need to be made when the technology increases the chances of safety issues. I trust that MLB will do the necessary research to make sure that the bats are legal and that everyone is playing the game with the same chances to use approved technology. We have seen several changes in the past few years that have improved the game of baseball. For instance, the pitching clock and visits to the mound by managers. At the end of the day, change is progress if done well.”
Toby Denman, a science teacher and former baseball coach at Nonnewaug, says the MLB only likes the popularity of it.
“MLB is likely to favor anything that favors run production”, Denman said. “My guess is that torpedo bats are here to stay since MLB probably equates run production to increase in fan interest. The fans love it. Therefore the MLB wont do anything about it because of money and views.”
Among other NHS faculty, Ryan Campanario, physical education teacher at Nonnewaug, likes the torpedo bats.
“They are making a big splash for certain. I have not done much research, but I understand that they are within the rules of the game, so I am fine with it”, said Campanario. “There will always be people who are searching for the next big thing, and they might have found it with the torpedo bat. However, in a way I wish that all the technology advancements in sports did not come about as fast as they have. As for the metal torpedo bats, I can see manufactures going to them if they can make more money selling them.”
For today’s NHS baseball players like Patrick Martinetto, a freshman, torpedo bats can be especially helpful in helping young hitters develop.
“Torpedo bats are used by certain players who need to work on their swing and help them make better contact,” says Martinetto. “I think they shouldn’t make aluminum torpedo bats because that would be too overpowered because of their bat speed and ability to hit the ball hard.”
Martinetto isn’t alone in seeing the usefulness of torpedo bats as Owen Hustek, a fellow freshman starting varsity catcher for Nonnewaug baseball, also likes the torpedo bats and thinks they are useful.
“I think the torpedo bats are good depending on the hitter,” Hustek said. “If you are a hitter who continuously gets jammed on the hands then the torpedo bat will help you get the bat around faster and hit the barrel. I would like to see them in college and high school because it will help struggling hitters do better. It would also allow hitters to use a bigger bat because they are more balanced.”
