A latest video that surfaced on social media may need some Yankees followers questioning if Cody Bellinger has been utilizing a bat with a barrel that’s extra of a sq. form this spring.
Which may sound foolish, however the clip, posted by a person who goes by “Fuzzy,” has greater than 1 million views on TikTok and over half 1,000,000 on YouTube. On the latter platform, the video is titled, “he’s using a SQUARE bat??”
Some feedback there are lots of in complete — beneath the video state that the lumber needs to be unlawful and that Bellinger has been dishonest.
“That is a brand-new bat,” a voiceover states because the video exhibits a nonetheless picture of Bellinger’s bat getting used on a house run swing. “I’ve never really seen a bat look like a square or a hexagon where it’s thick towards the middle and then, all of a sudden, it tapers off towards the end.”
Bellinger’s response?
He’s really been utilizing three new fashions which have extra weight distributed towards the deal with finish of the bats than he’s beforehand been accustomed to. He feels these new bats, totally different in general weight, are extra balanced from finish to finish.
“There’s ways to move the weight of the bat. Some guys like top heavy, some guys like hand-loaded bats,” Bellinger mentioned. “You just gotta find a bat that feels good, that kind of moves with you.
“I’m a believer in swinging different things.”
Bellinger mentioned that massive league hitters have put a higher emphasis on the burden distribution of their bats over the past three or 4 years. Yankees hitting coach James Rowson has observed that as nicely.
“Some guys are feeling like they want to balance the bat so that it works for them,” Rowson mentioned. “So for years, you always changed your models. But now guys are balancing the bat in a way that they feel like the weight is distributed the right way.”
This shifting method has include some new designs. For instance, there at the moment are bats with “puck knobs,” which are supposed to counterbalance the burden of the barrel. Bellinger’s new bats, in the meantime, look just a little sleeker close to the barrel to the bare eye, which can have contributed to the squarish kind the wooden appeared to absorb the aforementioned video.
“You see these golfers, they’re very into their clubs,” Bellinger mentioned. “As baseball players, it’s like why are we just picking up a bat and saying, ‘Oh, this feels good?’ Why is there no science behind anything here?
“You can test your swing path, you can test your exit velocity. There’s data behind everything now. You see it on the pitching side with Trackman. On the hitting side, you see it with a bunch of different things, like Blast Motion [bat sensors] or something like that.”
Bellinger’s new bats have labored nicely for him, because the Yankees’ anticipated No. 3 hitter ended spring coaching slashing .400/.444/.680 with 5 doubles, three homers and 7 RBI.
sq. bat bellinger pic.twitter.com/K27o8AzpMz
Bellinger, a left-handed swinger, additionally noticed his exit velocity go from 87.8 mph final season to 93.5 mph this spring, whereas his bat velocity elevated from 69 mph to 70.2 mph. Bellinger’s ninetieth Percentile Exit Velocity, a helpful predictor when small samples, additionally went up by about 3 mph.
Acquired in a commerce with the Cubs over the offseason, Bellinger mentioned his new bats might have one thing to do with these improved metrics and robust exhibition numbers. However as Opening Day approaches, he additionally simply actually likes the place his mechanics are at as he prepares to make the most of Yankee Stadium’s brief proper area porch.
“I think it helps,” Bellinger mentioned of his new instruments. “But I do think that my swing is in a better spot right now than it was last year.”
Initially Revealed: March 25, 2025 at 8:00 AM EDT
