Enviroag02 said:

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I guess I don't understand this. The rule states it can't be thicker than 2.61" at the thickest part. If these are in compliance then that means for all these years all of MLB has been using bats that were not as thick as they could be…and that's makes no sense. Why would they not maximize bat size?

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The regs for ever have been that a bat diameter cannot be more than about 2 5/8ths inches at it's maximum diameter but I think most MLB bats are closer to 2 1/2" in diameter. Looks like this maximizes the barrel diameter while maintaining weight by tapering back down to the end of the bat.

So all this talk and news stories about the diameter should really be talking about the overall weight instead and just a redistribution of wood to maintain the same weight which begs the question why it hasn't been done? There must be a drawback. Will we see a different bat shape for every hitter and every situation?

Elly De La Cruz tried the torpedo bat tonight. 4-5, 2HRs, 2B, 7 RBI.

https://www.mlb.com/news/elly-de-la-cruz-hits-two-homers-to-lead-reds-to-win?adobe_mc=TS%3D1743478037%7CMCMID%3D35804124303259894325862052152212337732%7CMCORGID%3DA65F776A5245B01B0A490D44@AdobeOrg&affiliateId=mlbapp-ios_webview_news-index&rsid=mlbios.at.bat.new.implementation

"De La Cruz became the latest Major League hitter to make use of the "Torpedo" bat that's made with the barrel closer to the hands. It's the same type of bat that made weekend headlines after the Yankees' homer barrage vs. the Brewers. The switch-hitting De La Cruz tried it in batting practice Monday and used it in a game for the first time later that night.
"I just wanted to know if it feels good -- and it definitely does," De La Cruz said."

"Trevino talked about it in Spring Training, but I hadn't really used it until today," De La Cruz said.
When asked if he would use the bat again, De La Cruz replied with a laugh. After his success, other Reds could very well follow suit -- and Francona had no issue with that."

So, what's the consensus now. Do we still think these bats are some amazing new technology?

Idk, but everyone was talking about MLB for a while as the season started.

I'm not saying it was a publicity stunt by MLB, but if they did have some type of publicity stunt to open a season they couldn't have done it better than these torpedo bats by the Yankees nonetheless…

I think every big leaguer would have been already using them if they were game changing

Just an update:

As of today (5/28/25), the Yankees lead the majors in HR, Slugging %, and OPS.


https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/team/_/table/batting/sort/homeRuns/dir/desc

It helps when you have Judge who's leading the league by a large margin with SLG and OPS with a non torpedo bat.