The Torpedo

4-3-25 – By Corey Shrader – @CoreyShrader on X/Josh Booth – @bridge2buctober on X

What Is The Torpedo Bat?

If you are a fan of baseball it is almost impossible that you have not heard of the Torpedo Bat by now. Starting in the opening series it was reported that several New York Yankees players were utilizing a modified, but legal, type of bat labeled a “Torpedo Bat.” The Yankees went on a massive power surge in their opening series slugging 15 homeruns and as a team slashing .333/.427/.804 with a gaudy .497 wOBA & 233 wRC+.

So What Is the Deal?

One look at the difference in barrel distribution and you will notice the relocation of the most dense wood closer to the label. The purpose of this is, as explained in a terrific “X” thread by Penn State Professor of Acoustics, Dan Russell (read full thread here), is to move the center of mass closer to the hands allowing for increased balance, bat control, and swing speed.

In theory, this relocation of center of mass should generate higher quality of contact on a more consistent basis for the hitter. Now here is where it is important to present and define the common Statcast terminology that I believe to be applicable to these proposed benefits.

Relevant Terms

*Full glossary of Statcast terms available here.

Batted Ball Event (BBE)

Any ball in play during an at bat.

Square Up%

A hitter’s ability to square up a BBE is the individual player making maximally effective hard contact on any given pitch. There are no exit velocity or launch angle qualifiers attached to this metric. There is positive correlation to higher Square Up% to higher productive outcomes to a BBE.

Sweet Spot% (SwSp%)

SwSp% is expressed by a percentage of a hitter’s batted balls meeting a minimum of 95 mph exit velocity & a launch angle between 8-32 degrees. Higher SwSp% also equates to more expected productive outcomes for a BBE.

Barrel% (Brl%)

Brl% applies to any BBE that combines an exit velocity with a minimum of 98mph + a launch angle of 26-31 degrees of launch angle. The higher the exit velocity, the wider the range of applicable launch angle becomes. Statcast suggests that any BBE that qualifies as a Barrel leads to a batting average of .500 & a slugging percentage of 1.500.

Swing Speed/Fast Swing Rate

Most simply, the higher the average swing speed and higher percentage of fast swing rate is, the capacity for production on any BBE rises.

Blasts

Finally we come to Blasts. The combination of the many above features. To qualify as a blast a BBE must combine bat speed & square up%. In turn, the resulting contact will also end up being both barreled and/or be sweet spot contact.

What Are We Seeing?

As of writing we are seeing the Torpedo bat become a hot button issue among fans as more and more players are beginning to use them in game action. Truth be told, with the amount of BBEs the confirmed users of the Torpedo have compiled are too small to be trustworthy. There are early returns for some such as Anthony Volpe& Cody Bellinger that are encouraging proof of efficacy.

2024 to 2025 Relevant Rate Comparison

These are all on their face, impressive results. I think that this is going to be an incredibly fascinating experiment to continue tracking in 2025. It must be mentioned however, that the BBE sample size is extremely small (8,9,11 respectively). Generally these rates do not begin to become stable until after 50-70 BBEs.

Should The Pirates Be Exploring The Torpedo?

In my opinion, yes. To state it in its most simple form; there is no downside to seeing more Pirates experiment with these in game action. It has been reported that Oneil Cruz has used one in play and it should be expected to see more very soon. It is ironic that Cruz is probably the one Buc that doesn’t really “need” to see these metrics increase to be a great producer. In the early going for the Yankees hitters deploying the Torpedo most all relevant metrics to increased production have trended up. Despite the sample size being too significant to draw firm conclusions, there is little downside that is observable either.

Observing the way these trendlines continue with more BBEs piling up will ultimately help tell the tale on the Torpedo bat’s effectiveness. It is also worth noting that regardless of there being hard, verified proof players are buying in already. For a Pittsburgh club that is…offensively challenged this is an easy choice in my opinion. In professional sports there is a cliché that they are “copycat leagues.” This situation is no different. You either catch up or get left behind. For many around the league, it is time to start running.