Another NL Team Has Made Move to Get Torpedo Bats

The hottest trend of the start of baseball season is heading to Philadelphia.
New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. squares to bunt against the Milwaukee Brewers.
New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. squares to bunt against the Milwaukee Brewers. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

We’re only a few days into the MLB season, but the first hot trend of the baseball year has already been identified: torpedo bats.

While the bats aren’t entirely new, the larger baseball world took greater notice of the oddly shaped bats when the New York Yankees used them to throttle the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend.

The bats are made with an oblong barrel that moves the sweet spot into a more optimal position for the man at the plate. After the success the Yankees have had to start the year, other teams are making calls to get their hands on some new lumber, with the Atlanta Braves ready to give them a shot.

While speaking with Good Day Philadelphia on Monday morning, a member of Victus, the company that makes the bats, said that the Phillies have also been in touch.

“You may see some torpedo bats at Citizens Bank Park this week,” they said.

A few hours later, Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott said he had sent a few texts about getting some bats.

“They’ve been around. It’s not a new thing,” Stott said. “It’s not a thing you can just go and order.” The process is pretty intensive, with Victus monitoring players through hundreds of swings in order to determine the right place to build the sweet spot.

“With the torpedo, you get jammed more than hit it off the end. It helps, obviously, moving the barrel down a bit, but it’s not one of those things that you can just call and say ‘I want this torpedo,’ because it might not work for you.”

The Phillies have their home opener on Monday after starting the year on the road. In addition to welcoming the crowds back to the ballpark, they may be showing off some new bats as well.


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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.