The New York Yankees has found a performance-enhancing drug, in addition it is in the form of a baseball tree.
Yankees met a franchise record nine home in Saturday’s victory against Milwaukee Brewers. Aaron Judge and Ben Rice both went for the Bronx bomb plans on Sunday, when Yankees improved to 3-0.
When Yankees lost Juan Soto to his Subway Series -Rival New York Mets this season, many expected the baseball that they would slip in American League East and predicted Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox would be much improved.
But these new, somewhat odd-shaped bats have given Yankee’s new life to start the 2025 campaign, and they have become the largest topic around baseball.
Complete disclosure: These bats are completely legal. In essence, Yankees found a way to move the majority of the bat’s weight to the barrel – more specifically, the label – so the most powerful part of the bat will probably contact baseball.
But it is not as simple as the fat child in the Wiffle Ball field showing up to the playground with a large red bat.
Yankees hired MIT-Physicist-Turned-bench coach Aaron Leanhardt, who is credited to this viral creation.
“Where are you trying to hit the ball?” Leanhardt said in a telephone interview with Athletic. “Where are you trying to make contact?”
The bats are specially designed for each player, which ensures that the majority of the wood is in line with where the specific player is likely to contact the baseball.
Leanhardt joined Miami Marlins as a field coordinator during the season, but Cody Bellinger said that at least five Yankees players use the new torpedo bats he created.
So, Yankees mainly hired a crazy researcher, made him develop these magical bats and decided to distribute them correctly when they lost Soto in free agency. Chess, not checks.
Let’s be honest – these bats are not good for the game. They give a team an extreme advantage. Sure, the bats are technically legal, but other teams would need to develop their own designs, send orders to a manufacturer and wait for them to be created and sent before they could even use them in batting practice or games.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Brewers said closer to Trevor Megill. “It could be the Bush League. It may not be. But it’s Yankees, so they let it slip.”
Since Yankees got their own analyst to create these bats independently, the rest of MLB is a disadvantage. New York had unequal access to innovation, which is a problem for the league as it provides a precedent for further bats.
In an absolute nightmare scenario, these torpedo bats were able to spiral out of control, making it difficult for the league to regulate equipment standards. This can lead to inconsistencies in enforcement and additional disputes about what is legal and what is prohibited.
MLB already drew a line with jugs when it universally banned the use of “sticky things” a few seasons ago. Now the league must determine the law with Yankees on these charged bats.
