Not to torpedo a juicy narrative, but Aaron Judge would probably be able to hit long home runs if he went to the plate with an unchiseled block of wood.
He has four in three games after hitting a two-run shot in the first inning of the Yankees’ 12-3 victory over the Brewers on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. After that, the Brewers walked him three times.
That’s not to say the news that five Yankees — not including Judge — are using so-called “torpedo bats” isn’t fun. It’s different, and the shape of the innovative bats are unusual, so what’s wrong with focusing some attention on them? Especially since the Yankees have scored 32 runs and hit 13 home runs over the past two days.
“We fired torpedoes all over the park,” said Jazz Chisholm Jr., who hit two home runs on Sunday and one on Saturday with the torpedo bat. “No pun intended.”
Torpedo bats have the barrel closer to the hitter’s hands. Michael Kay mentioned them on the YES broadcast on Saturday, saying that the Yankees’ analytics department suggested Anthony Volpe would benefit from having the barrel in that spot because he frequently hit the ball on the label with his regular bat.
Apparently, the idea of Volpe taking a step back in the box so he doesn’t get jammed as often is too old-school for modern analytics-based baseball.
Viola! A new-style bat was born, and so was an internet craze about the new-style bat.
“I need to know more!” the public screamed, and the many outlets who cover the Yankees were more than happy to oblige with breathless coverage on an otherwise sleepy Sunday morning.
Will torpedo bats go the way of pet rocks and poodle skirts as fads that will not stand the test of time? It depends on the success, or lack thereof, of the players who use them. Three games is not much of a sample size in a 162-game season.
Five Yankees are known to be torpedoing up (the rest, obviously, are so far saying, “Damn the torpedoes!”).
Chisholm, Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells have joined Volpe. All five have hit at least one home run as the Yankees have gotten off to a rollicking 3-0 start.
It’s gotta be the bats.
Actually, it doesn’t.
“Good players,” a skeptical Aaron Boone said of the Yankees’ overall offensive onslaught.
But if the players feel as if they are getting an advantage, even a slight one, then more power to them. Even Volpe said, “It’s probably just a placebo.”
Said Chisholm: “I started using it the last week and a half of spring [training], I think. And I just never looked back after that. It still felt like my bat. Feels good. Put the ball at the barrel. Feel comfortable in the box. I don’t know what else to tell you. I don’t know the science of it. I just play baseball.”
Happily for torpedo bat aficionados, if there are any yet, the Yankees checked with Major League Baseball and the new bats are legal.
Here’s how that conversation probably went:
Yankees: “Can we use these?”
MLB: “Can we still sell some of them as game-used bats?”
Yankees: “Sure.”
MLB: “OK then.”
As for the five torpedo bat users on Sunday: They went a combined 6-for-21 with eight RBIs, including Chisholm’s two homers.
Chisholm hit his second home run in two days by going yard into the rightfield corner with a two-run shot after the Brewers intentionally walked Judge with two outs and nobody on in the third (Brewers starer Aaron Civale had fallen behind 3-and-0).
Chisholm added a three-run home run in the seventh, also into the rightfield corner.
Judge, who hit three of the Yankees’ franchise-record nine home runs on Saturday, scoffed when asked about whether he is planning to start using a torpedo bat.
“What I’ve done the past couple of seasons speaks for itself,” Judge said in a rare boastful mic-drop moment.
After Volpe hit a line drive to center in the sixth that was so deep two runners were able to tag up and advance, a press box smart-aleck said, “That was actually a bunt with the new bat.”
But I say let’s embrace the torpedo bat. The Yankees haven’t held a Bat Day for fans in a few seasons, and don’t have one on their 2025 promotional schedule.
I believe I speak for many fans of a certain age who used to go to Bat Day, took home the undersized and somewhat cheaply-made bat that specifically had a warning on it that it was not to be used for playing the game of baseball, used it anyway, and was left with a shattered stick — and slightly shattered innocence.
It’s not too late to add Torpedo Bat Day to the promotional schedule. Just remember, kids — don’t play with it!
But they’re going to anyway, whether it’s a regular or torpedo bat. Or an Aaron Judge model unchiseled block of wood, which works just fine, too, if you’re Aaron Judge.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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