After All The Hype, Yankees' 'Torpedo Bat' Players Aren't Actually Hitting
When several members of the New York Yankees debuted the so-called "torpedo bat" in the first week of the 2025 season, they dominated the discussion around baseball for days on end.
Commentators, broadcasters, fans…many, if not most people around the game were convinced that the torpedo bats would make hitting easier than it'd ever been. Initially, it seemed like it would. The Yankees scored 20 runs against the Milwaukee Brewers in their second game of the season, then 12 more the next night.
In one weekend, they put up nine runs against the Arizona Diamondbacks, then nine and 10 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Suddenly, in an era of declining offense, it seemed like the torpedo bats had cracked the modern pitching code.
Except…fast forward a few weeks, and it's a completely different story. And the dramatic shift is, predictably, receiving very little attention.
NEW YORK - New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (13) flips his torpedo bat after hitting a three-run home run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium on March 30, 2025. Photo: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Yankees Players Suddenly Struggling With Torpedo Bats
The two players most connected to the torpedo bats are Yankees' infielders Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe. Both have struggled at times in their careers to "barrel" balls, with plenty of weak contact. And through the first week of the season, it seemed like they'd fixed that problem.
Except, as of Thursday evening, Anthony Volpe has a whopping .203 batting average. Jazz Chisholm is hitting .169. Literally the lowest batting average in Tuesday's starting lineup. Cody Bellinger has also used a torpedo bat this season, at least for some at bats. He's hitting .180.
Know who hasn't used the new bats? Aaron Judge, who's hitting .381 with a 1.217 OPS.
To be fair to Chisholm and Volpe, there are some positive signs in their underlying batted ball metrics. Volpe's barrel percentage is up this season, as is his average exit velocity. Chisolm too, has had a higher barrel percentage, though his average exit velocity is actually down by nearly a mile per hour from 2024. And his strikeout rate has exploded from 24.5% to 34.8%.
The torpedo bats might help specific players with some specific types of contact. They clearly can help certain hitters get the barrel of the bat on the ball more frequently. But it's equally clear that they're no panacea; it's not going to make superstars out of formerly mediocre hitters.
It's still early in the season, and maybe Chisholm and Volpe end up with better-than-expected offensive statistics. But for all the attention they grabbed in the first week, the hype seems to have died down considerably. Hitting around or below the Mendoza line will do that.