The question of whether a piece of equipment can improve one’s skill to the point that it makes an unfair advantage is not asked often. However, at the beginning of the 2025 MLB season, it is being asked often.
In just their second game of the season, the New York Yankees scored 20 runs and hit nine home runs.
After the game, it was noticed that some of the players on the team were using a new bat with the nickname “torpedo bat.” The bat created controversy with fans questioning whether it should be banned or not.
One of Del Val’s baseball coaches, Michael Miklosey, has his own opinion on the topic.
“Simply, the bats should not be banned,” Miklosey said. “Experiments with bats have happened throughout baseball history. This new bat concept, although different, is not anything new to the history of baseball. If anything, this is great for baseball. It’s bringing attention back to the game that used to be known as America’s Pastime. The commissioner said so himself.”
The main reason why people say that they should be banned is that the bats create an unfair advantage.
The idea of a torpedo bat is to move the sweet spot down so that hitters have a better contact area. The sweet spot of the bat is the best area of contact on the bat, and when the batter hits the ball on that part of the bat, it results in the strongest hit.
The bat was created by a former MIT-educated professor, Aaron Leanhardt. In an interview with Christina De Nicola of MLB Advanced Media, Leanhardt spoke about his creation.
“So I’m happy to always help those guys get a little bit better, but ultimately, it’s up to them to put good swings on pitches and grind it out every day,” Leanhardt said. “So, credit to those guys.”
The new bat still fits under MLB’s bat regulations, so while it is said it gives an unfair advantage, it is legal. The bat rules state that it can’t go past a diameter of 2.61 inches and 42 inches in length.
Those against the bats must take into account that the player still has to make contact with the ball.
“I think the only advantage that I can see is psychological,” Miklosey said. “If a player uses this bat during a batting practice session and feels good, it can be a confidence booster. Or maybe there is a traditionalist out there who pitches, and it might get in his head that a batter is using this type of bat. But I don’t think there is any tangible advantage that this offers anyone.”
In high school and college baseball, there are also advantages when it comes to bats.
In anything leagure below the majors, the majority of the time players use metal bats. Essentially, they are just a more durable version of the wooden bats; they also have a larger sweet spot, and players can have a faster swing speed. As more professionals and teams are using the bats, more younger athletes will use it.
As technology advances and the game grows older, there will always be advances in the equipment the players use. The game is constantly evolving, so the torpedo bats are just another part of that evolution. In the end, they don’t create an unfair advantage.