Philly Plain Dealer

Baseball, for all its supposed adherence to tradition, has never actually been that resistant to change, at least as far as increasing offense goes. Spider Tack and spitballs came and went, the mound was lowered, entire weight rooms were transformed into HGH dispensaries. The latest innovation in this ongoing pursuit of offensive advantage? The Torpedo Bat, a bizarre looking, subtly reshaped bat designed by an MIT physicist, and manufactured by Jersey-born and King of Prussia based bat company Victus. This cigar-shaped bat seeks to improve contact rate and power for a certain type of hitter, usually one who tends to hit the ball lower on the barrel than desired.

The science behind the bat is simple enough: put more of the bat’s mass toward the label, where most contact is made. In doing so, the weight distribution is optimized in a way that helps to square up the ball. To put it less scientifically: someone figured out how to legally shove more wood into the part of the bat that actually hits the baseball. It’s such a simple solution that the mind boggles at how no one has thought of this before. The best part, it’s all completely legal. 

Early adopters swear by the bat’s benefits–just ask the Brewers, who spent Saturday afternoon being bludgeoned by Yankees hitters wielding these things en route to a 20-run demolition. The sheer brutality of the beatdown-in which the Yankees hit a franchise record 9 home runs (many of which were propelled by Torpedo Bats) launched these bats into the baseball zeitgeist overnight. That said, these bats have been used in the league since at least 2019, albeit far less frequently and to far less acclaim.¹

Given that major leaguers will latch onto even the tiniest perceived advantage (does anyone remember when every athlete was wearing those pseudo-scientific Power Balance bracelets?), it’s not surprising that these bats have found their way into big league lineups. Victus, being a Philadelphia-area company, was kind enough to drop a box of these newfangled bats off at Citizens Bank Park, where Alec Bohm was seen using one. It’s rumored that Stott and Harper have placed orders for custom ones after the game. Whether it will make a difference for the Phillies remains to be seen. However, expect to see (and hear about) these new bats much more in the coming weeks, as the floodgates of notoriety have been opened. It’s the MLB’s “Tush Push.” 

For now, the Torpedo Bat is just the latest tweak in baseball’s unending arms race between pitchers and hitters, science and tradition, innovation and the sentimental belief that the game was somehow purer before. The bats get reshaped, the balls get juiced, the bases grow an inch or two, and every new saltation is met with the same cacophonous chorus of purists who believe the sport reached perfection in 1956. The Torpedo Bat will be no different. Maybe it’s a revolution, maybe it’s a passing fad. Either way, I look forward to what comes next. 

1. One thing about Major League Baseball pundits: they desperately crave something to talk about (I know what you’re thinking: aren’t YOU talking about it? Yes. I am no better than them). Just as 2021 was the Year of Spider Tack and 2023 was the Year of the Pitch Clock, 2025 is quickly shaping up to be the Year of the Torpedo Bat, a gift to the talking heads at MLB Network, who now have a fresh excuse to wax poetic about bat physics for the next six months. ↩︎