MIAMI — Griffin Canning awakened Monday morning to a textual content from his grandmother in Southern California. She wasn’t asking about his first begin along with his new group or something of that nature. No, she was asking the Mets right-hander in regards to the one factor in baseball everybody appears to wish to speak about this week: torpedo bats.
This appears to be the perspective across the revelatory bats within the Mets clubhouse. They don’t fairly perceive why everybody from Canning’s grandmother to CNN is discussing the bats that look somewhat like inverted bowling pins with a fats barrel towards the highest of the bat as an alternative of a bat that narrows on the deal with and tapers out evenly from there.
The creation of Aaron Leanhardt, a former physics professor who was educated at MIT and taught on the College of Michigan earlier than turning into a hitting coordinator with the Yankees and a area coordinator with the Miami Marlins, the bats all of the sudden turned controversial over the weekend when the Yankees hit 15 homers of their first sequence of the season. They hit 9 alone Saturday in a rout of the Milwaukee Brewers, and 4 extra Sunday.
Instantly, the problem blew up like… nicely, prefer it had been hit by a torpedo. The Mets don’t actually perceive why.
The at all times insightful Clay Holmes stated he had “no opinion” on the bats, particularly when he discovered that Aaron Choose doesn’t use them. Jesse Winker had “no take.” Different gamers simply shrugged.
The bats have been round for a number of years, at the least since 2023, and bat firms have lengthy been working with the distribution of weight to assist hitters get an edge.
“There were guys using them last year,” stated Mets outfielder and former Yankees slugger Juan Soto. “I had teammates last year that asked me if I wanted to try it, but it never caught my attention.”
Soto appears open to making an attempt one, however perhaps not intrigued. The numbers converse for themselves with gamers like Soto. However he understands the enchantment.
“Some of the other teams use it,” Soto stated. “They’re just trying to find something where the hitters feel more balanced. Every swing is different and everybody is going to feel different with a different kind of bat. It’s just finding a way to make it better for them.”
Second baseman Jeff McNeil infamously used a knob-less mannequin that seemed extra like a closet rod than a baseball bat for a number of years, even successful a batting title with it. Made by Dove Tail, McNeil discovered precisely what Soto stated hitters are in search of when making an attempt completely different bats — steadiness. McNeil favored the untraditional mannequin as a result of he stated he felt balanced in his swing with it.
Gamers are utilizing the instruments they’ve obtainable of their toolboxes. There’s nothing fallacious with innovation, as long as it’s authorized.
“I think the best comparison we came up with is golf clubs,” Canning stated. “They do kind of the same thing. They can tailor it to how you swing. They can make it so if you always miss one way, they’re going to angle it so it doesn’t go that way as much.”
The torpedo bats doubtless gained’t change the best way anybody pitches, however pitchers will take note of the kind of bats hitters are utilizing and skim their swings. A pitcher may have the ability to see some tendencies in swings if a hitter walks up utilizing a torpedo bat.
“Someone like [Yankees shortstop] Anthony Volpe, let’s say he always gets jammed a little bit, maybe it can give you some insight into his approach,” Canning stated. “If it’s a thing, everyone will start doing it, right?”
It hasn’t caught on for the Mets but. Francisco Lindor used one in Houston over the weekend after being given a number of of the bats towards the tip of spring coaching, however up to now, he appears to be the one one of many Amazin’s to have even acquired one. The sensation of the bat is completely different sufficient that it’s not one which you can simply decide up and use in the midst of a recreation, hitters have to take swings with it first and follow with it to have the ability to get a really feel for the way the burden works.
And it’s not a bat that can work for everybody.
“The way I see it, what if you are a guy that gets the barrel out, and you’re always out front?” stated supervisor Carlos Mendoza.
Properly, then the bat won’t be for you.
The bottom line is nonetheless pitching. Like Brewers supervisor Pat Murphy stated, “It ain’t the wand, it’s the magician.” Possibly that’s the message Canning can ship to his grandma in Temecula.
“As pitchers, we have a lot of different tools that are pretty popular now and kind of needed,” Canning stated. “So it’s only a matter of time before the hitters start figuring some stuff out on their side too.”
Initially Printed: March 31, 2025 at 6:32 PM EDT
