Who is Yordenis Ugas, and why is he fighting Manny Pacquiao?
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4 years agoon
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Mike CoppingerESPN
YORDENIS UGAS WAS silent. He was happy, soaking in the moment. The 35-year-old had just received an unexpected call, offering him an opportunity he’d long dreamed of.
The answer about whether or not he’d take a fight against boxing’s only eight-division champion, Manny Pacquiao, was never in doubt. Of course he said yes.
And when Ugas steps into the ring against Pacquiao on Saturday in Las Vegas, he’ll be defending his WBA “super” welterweight title against a 42-year-old living legend having only 11 days’ notice.
Both men were training for drastically different fights on the same card: Pacquiao against IBF and WBC world title holder Errol Spence Jr.; Ugas against Fabian Maidana. Both Spence and Maidana suffered eye injuries that knocked them out of those fights. Suddenly, Pacquiao and Ugas were set to headline a PBC on Fox pay-per-view at T-Mobile Arena.
“I was surprised,” says Ugas, ESPN’s No. 6 boxer at 147 pounds. “I had emotion running through [me], but I also knew I was prepared. This was meant for a reason.”
If Ugas seems unfazed, it’s because of everything he’s been through over the past decade in his professional career, and everything that led up to this point. He’s an Olympic medalist for his native Cuba, who defected to the United States to pursue his professional dreams. He spent two years (from 2014 to 2016), retired from the sport. And before he could even launch his professional career, Ugas struggled for years to get his feet underneath him.
The stars have finally aligned for Ugas. It’s been a long time coming.
TWO YEARS AFTER winning bronze at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Ugas made the only choice available if he wanted to pursue his dream of winning a world title: He defected from Cuba.
“Imagine being in the open sea for two days, you’re in a small little boat so you’re all over the place with the waves,” Ugas recalled. “I thought at every moment I was going to die. It’s not something I would wish on anyone; it’s very dangerous.”
That small raft brought him from Cuba to Mexico. From there, he made his way to Miami, where many Cuban defectors have settled over the past few decades.
Living in the United States with a minimal support system and little money was difficult, and lonely. During those seemingly never-ending days, Ugas would head over to McDonald’s and order a dollar-menu apple pie. Not just one — sometimes as many as seven. It was comfort food, and the only meal he could afford that would offer any solace.
But Ugas’ pro career started well enough inside the ring. He recorded five wins in 2010, and that November, two key things happened: Ugas got his first up-close look at Pacquiao, when Pacquiao picked apart Antonio Margarito in a 154-pound title fight and became boxing’s first eight-division world champion. And that night, as Ugas was ringside at the home of the Dallas Cowboys, he met Bob Arum and laid the groundwork for his first promotional contract.
“Ugas was wearing a white suit, he had that Don Johnson look, no shirt on, and Arum f—ing falls in love with the look,” Top Rank Boxing matchmaker Brad Goodman recalled. “Arum thought he was the real deal.”
TOP RANK SIGNED Ugas and placed him on a February 2011 card against Carlos Musquez. Ugas won his first six fights with the promotion, running his record to 11-0 with five knockouts.
Then they stepped up the competition for Ugas with a fight against Johnny Garcia, on Showtime’s prospect-oriented series, ShoBox: The New Generation. It was a disaster for Ugas, who suffered his first professional loss via split decision. And that wasn’t all.
“His first showing to really showcase his skills, and he lost a split decision,” Goodman says. “He really didn’t go out there and shine like he was supposed to. We were just real down [on him] and we just released him.”
The release, Ugas says, was a psychological blow that took him years to recover from. He won four fights after parting ways with Top Rank, but then lost back-to-back fights against Emanuel Robles and Amir Imam in 2014. Following the unanimous-decision setback to Imam that May, Ugas suddenly called it quits.
His career hadn’t gone the way he planned; far from it, in fact. At 15-3, and just four years into his pro career, Ugas couldn’t handle losing. He had been one of the best amateurs in Cuban history, winning several national championships and a gold medal at the 2005 World Championships in Mianyang, China.
“Dark days back then, it was very depressing,” Ugas said, via translation from his manager, Luis DeCubas. “I’ve been competing in boxing over 20 years; never not been competing; never thought I didn’t have a future. Sitting in a room with no future, no money, no life: it’s pretty depressing. You think the worst things.
“I was retired, 100 percent out of boxing; wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I was confused. I didn’t know what I was going to do in life, period. … Bad time in my career; bad time in life.”
“He’s not a drinker, but [he was] hanging out until late, not taking things seriously, not running,” said DeCubas.
Ugas was living in New Jersey at that point, and to get by, he worked odd jobs to pay the bills — the first jobs he ever had outside of boxing. Hard labor.
Then Ugas received the call that “100 percent changed my life.” On the other line, along with DeCubas, was Aroldis Chapman, the future MLB All-Star closer. Chapman, a fellow Cuban defector and one of Ugas’ closest friends since they arrived in Miami, had signed a lucrative contract with the Cincinnati Reds in January 2010, and he was ready to offer Ugas a much-needed lifeline and a doorway back into boxing.
The message from Chapman: “I’ll give you the money to move to Vegas, but you better take this as your last opportunity.”
WHILE HE WAS living in New Jersey during that two-year hiatus, Ugas had plenty of time to think. He couldn’t wrap his head around it all. How had he reached this point?
He surveyed the boxing landscape and saw who was thriving. Terence Crawford? Ugas beat him when they met in the Pan American Games qualifier in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, in 2007. Sadam Ali. Darleys Perez. Jose Pedraza. Along with Crawford, all titleholders at that time. And all fighters Ugas had beaten as an amateur.
“These guys are champions; I’m not a champion?” Ugas recalls thinking. “I gotta be a champion.”
Determined to make the most of the opportunity Chapman placed at his feet, Ugas packed up what little he owned and moved to Las Vegas for a fresh start — linking up with trainer Ismael Salas, another Cuban, and reuniting with DeCubas. He changed his lifestyle and dedicated himself completely to his craft.
He also moved up in weight, from 140 pounds to 147, and witnessed the birth of his son, Yordenis Jr. — the two biggest factors in his dramatic turnaround, Ugas says.
During the second act of his career with DeCubas, in which he eventually signed with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions promotion, Ugas impressed as a reliable fill-in. Less than a year into his return, Ugas scored a second-round stoppage vs. Nelson Lara on two days’ notice in 2017. Later that year, he agreed to take on an even better opponent on one week’s notice, defeating Thomas Dulorme by decision.
“I could tell when he came out [to Las Vegas,] he wasn’t playing around,” DeCubas said.
“He just made a complete turnaround. He has all the ability in the world,” said Goodman, who considers Ugas’ inside game his best attribute. “… He’s very calm. He carries a lot of confidence. Nothing rattles him.”
By 2019, Ugas had put together eight consecutive victories, and lined up opposite Shawn Porter for a WBC welterweight title shot — the kind of opportunity he had long dreamed of. Despite being as much as a +400 underdog, Ugas went punch for punch with Porter, and in the minds of many in the boxing world watching that night, did enough to win. But the cards ultimately went against him, albeit narrowly in a split decision.
Besides the controversial defeat to Porter, Ugas’ résumé includes decision wins over solid fighters like Jamal James, Abel Ramos and Omar Figueroa Jr., as well as TKOs vs. Bryant Perrella and Ray Robinson.
None of those boxers, of course, come close to the legendary Pacquiao.
1:03
Manny Pacquiao shares his thoughts on his new opponent Yordenis Ugas, following Errol Spence Jr.’s withdrawal due to injury.
SEVEN YEARS ON from hitting the pause button in his career, Ugas, a fighter once labeled a bust, is on the doorstep of a life-changing opportunity.
“I never expected to fight Manny Pacquiao, especially at his age and how much more ahead [of me] he was,” Ugas said. “He’s such a great fighter and he showed [it] with what he did against Keith Thurman and Adrien Broner [in his two most recent fights]. What a great fighter he still is, even at 42 years old.
“He’s one of the greatest fighters of all time, there’s no question about it. It’s going to be a pleasure and honor to share the ring with a legend. But once the bell rings, all that goes out the window and it’s a fight. It’s not, ‘I’m fighting Manny Pacquiao.’ I’m fighting for my life.”
“He has to prepare for his future outside of boxing; these are the fights that do that,” DeCubas says. “And a win over Pacquiao sets him up for life.”
Ugas (26-4, 12 KOs) enters the fight against Pacquiao as the WBA champion, a position he was elevated to back in January. The old champ? Pacquiao, who won the title from Thurman in July 2019 but hasn’t fought since. Due to the long layoff, the WBA appointed him champion in recess. Pacquiao petitioned the WBA to be reinstated ahead of the Spence fight, but in a surprise decision, the WBA ruled last month to maintain Ugas as champion.
“Ugas is a champion because they gave him my belt,” Pacquiao said last week. “Now, we have to settle it inside of the ring. I cannot take him lightly because he’s the kind of fighter who will take advantage of that.”
Ugas is in a familiar position, both as a last-minute replacement and as a +280 betting underdog as of Wednesday morning at Caesars Sportsbook.
Given what he has fought through — defecting from Cuba, fighting back from a two-year hiatus and the disappointment of not getting the win over Porter, among many other challenges along the way — doubting Ugas’ chances Saturday is a risky position to take.
“If he’s overlooking me, he’s going to have a problem,” Ugas said. “I’m in the prime of my career. I’m a world champion; I’m fighting at the highest level I ever fought. You put the championship pedigree with the Olympic pedigree — I can’t wait for the fight.”
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Jeff LegwoldApr 4, 2025, 12:41 PM ET
Close- Jeff Legwold covers the Denver Broncos at ESPN. He has covered the Broncos for more than 20 years and also assists with NFL draft coverage, joining ESPN in 2013. He has been a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Selectors since 1999, too. Jeff previously covered the Pittsburgh Steelers, Buffalo Bills and Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans at previous stops prior to ESPN.
BOULDER, Colo. — A horde of NFL talent evaluators headed for the mountains Friday for the Colorado Showcase, where Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter was one of the big draws.
However, it was going to be a limited look at best as Hunter was not seen when players’ heights and weights were taken or for the jumps and 40-yard dash.
Hunter, who is expected to be a top-five selection in this year’s draft and is the No. 1 player on Mel Kiper Jr.’s Big Board, was initially not expected to participate in any on-field work, but Friday morning some scouts in attendance said they expected the two-way star to run routes as a receiver for quarterback Shedeur Sanders‘ throwing session.
Hunter did not work out at the scouting combine or Big 12 pro day but did meet with teams in Indianapolis. Sanders, one of the top quarterbacks on the board and Kiper’s No. 5 player overall, also did not work out at the combine.
Sanders’ brother, Colorado safety Shilo Sanders, measured in at 5-foot-11⅞, 196 pounds, but he did not participate in the jumps or bench press that opened the workout, citing a right shoulder injury.
The highly attended event — by scouts, coaches and personnel executives as well as fans packing small bleachers — had a festive atmosphere. Colorado coach Deion Sanders named it the “We Ain’t Hard 2 Find Showcase,” completed with a large lighted “showcase” sign next to the drills.
Hunter, who has said he wants to play offense and defense in the NFL, won the Chuck Bednarik (top defensive player) and Biletnikoff (top receiver) awards, in addition to the Heisman. He said whether he would primarily be a wide receiver or cornerback in the NFL “depended on the team that picks me.”
He had 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns as a receiver last season to go with 35 tackles, 11 pass breakups and four interceptions at cornerback. In the Buffaloes’ regular-season finale against Oklahoma State, he became the only FBS player in the past 25 years with three scrimmage touchdowns on offense and an interception in the same game, according to ESPN Research.
Hunter played 1,380 total snaps in Colorado’s 12 regular-season games: 670 on offense, 686 on defense and 24 on special teams. He played 1,007 total snaps in 2023.
With all NFL eyes on the Colorado campus to see Sanders throw, one player who made the most of it was wide receiver Will Sheppard, who was not invited to the combine. Sheppard, who measured in at 6-2¼, 196 pounds, ran his 40s in 4.56 and 4.54 to go with a 40½-inch vertical jump and a 10-foot-11 in the broad jump.
Sports
‘It’s taken on a life of its own’: Inside the 48 hours torpedo bats launched into baseball lore
Published
2 hours agoon
April 4, 2025By
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Buster OlneyApr 4, 2025, 12:00 PM ET
Close- Senior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com
- Analyst/reporter ESPN television
- Author of “The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty”
At 1:54 ET on Saturday afternoon, New York Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay lit the fuse on what will be remembered as either one of the most metamorphic conversations in baseball history or one of its strangest.
During spring training, someone in the organization had mentioned to Kay that the team’s analytics department had counseled players on where pitches tended to strike their bats, and with subsequent buy-in from some of the players, bats had been designed around that information. In the hours before the Yankees’ home game against the Brewers that day, Kay told the YES Network production staff about this, alerting them so they could look for an opportunity to highlight the equipment.
After the Yankees clubbed four homers in the first inning, a camera zoomed in on Jazz Chisholm Jr.‘s bat in the second inning. “You see the shape of Chisholm’s bat…” Kay said on air. “It’s got a big barrel on it,” Paul O’Neill responded, before Kay went on to describe the analysis behind the bat shaped like a torpedo.
Chisholm singled to left field, and after Anthony Volpe worked the count against former teammate Nestor Cortes to a full count, Volpe belted a home run to right field using the same kind of bat. A reporter watching the game texted Kay: Didn’t he hit the meat part of the bat you were talking about — just inside where the label normally is?
Yep, Kay responded. Within an hour of Kay’s commentary, the video of Chisholm’s bat and Kay’s exchange with O’Neill was posted on multiple platforms of social media, amplified over and over. What happened over the next 48 hours was what you get when you mix the power of social media and the desperation of a generation of beleaguered hitters. Batting averages are at a historic low, strikeout rates at a historic high, and on a sunny spring day in the Bronx, here were the Yankees blasting baseballs into the seats with what seemed to be a strangely shaped magic bat.
An oasis of offense had formed on the horizon, and hitters — from big leaguers to Little Leaguers, including at least one member of Congress — paddled toward it furiously. Acres of trees will be felled and shaped to feed the thirst for this new style of bats. Last weekend, one bat salesman asked his boss, “What the heck have we done?”
Jared Smith, CEO of bat-maker Victus, said, “I’ve been making bats for 15, 16 years. … This is the most talked-about thing in the industry since I started. And I hope we can make better-performing bats that work for players.”
According to Bobby Hillerich, the vice president of production at Hillerich & Bradsby, his company — which is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and makes Louisville Slugger bats — had produced 20 versions of the torpedo bat as of this past Saturday, and in less than a week, that number has tripled as players and teams continually call in their orders.
Said Yankees manager Aaron Boone: “It’s taken on a life of its own.”
0:36
Olney: ‘Torpedo’ bats could be catching the eye of MLB teams
Buster Olney reports on the Braves exploring the new “torpedo” bats the Yankees have been using and how other teams could explore it as well.
Even though Saturday marked its launch into the mainstream, this shape of bat has actually been around for a while. Hillerich & Bradsby had its first contact with a team about the style in 2021 and had nondisclosure agreements with four teams as the bat evolved; back then, it was referred to as the “bowling pin” bat. The Cubs’ Nico Hoerner was the first major leaguer to try it — and apparently wasn’t comfortable with it. Cody Bellinger tried it when he was with the Cubs before joining the Yankees during the offseason.
Before Atlanta took the field Sunday night, Braves catcher Drake Baldwin recalled trying one in the Arizona Fall League last year (noting that his first impression was that it “looked weird”). Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor used it in 2024, in a year in which he would finish second in the NL MVP voting; Lindor’s was a little different from Volpe’s version, with a cup hollowed out at the end of the bat. Giancarlo Stanton swung one throughout his playoff surge last fall, but no one in the media noticed, perhaps because of how the pitch-black color of Stanton’s bat camouflaged the shape.
Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli saw one in the Twins’ dugout during spring training and picked it up, his attention drawn to the unusual shape. “What the hell is this thing?” he asked, wondering aloud whether the design was legal. When he was assured it was, he put it back down.
Baldelli’s experience reflected the way hitters have used and assessed bats since the advent of baseball: They’ll pick up bats and see how they feel, their interest fueled by the specter of success. Tony Gwynn won eight batting titles, and many teammates and opposing hitters — Barry Bonds among them — asked whether they could inspect his bats. The torpedo bat’s arrival was simply the latest version of that long-held search for the optimal tool.
On Opening Day, eight teams had some version of the torpedo bat within their stock, according to one major league source. But with video of the Yankees’ home runs being hit off unusual bats saturating social media Saturday afternoon, the phone of Kevin Uhrhan, pro bat sales rep for Louisville Slugger, blew up with requests for torpedo bats. James Rowson, the hitting coach of the Yankees, began to get text inquiries — about 100, he later estimated. Everyone wanted to know about the bat; everyone wanted to get their own.
In San Diego, Braves players asked about the bats, and by Sunday morning, equipment manager Calvin Minasian called in the team’s order. By the middle of the week, all 30 teams had asked for the bats. “Every team started trying to get orders in,” Hillerich said. “We’re trying to scramble to get wood. And then it was: How fast can we get this to retail?”
Victus produces the bats Chisholm and Volpe are using and has made them available for retail. Three senior players, all in their 70s, stopped by the Victus store to ask about the torpedoes. A member of Congress who plays baseball reached out to Louisville Slugger.
The Cincinnati Reds contacted Hillerich & Bradsby, saying, “We need you in Cincinnati on Monday ASAP,” and soon after, Uhrhan and pro bat production manager Brian Hillerich, Bobby’s brother, made the 90-minute drive from the company’s factory in Louisville with test bats.
Reds star Elly De La Cruz tried a few, decided on a favorite and used it for a career performance that night.
“You can think in New York, maybe there was wind,” Bobby Hillerich said. “Elly hits two home runs and gets seven RBIs. That just took it to a whole new level.”
A few days after the Yankees’ explosion, Aaron Leanhardt, who had led New York’s effort to customize its bats as a minor league hitting coordinator before being hired by the Marlins as their field coordinator, was in the middle of a horseshoe of reporters, explaining the background. “There are a lot more cameras here today than I’m used to,” he said, laughing.
Stanton spoke with reporters about the simple concept behind the bat: build a design for where a hitter is most likely to make contact. “You wonder why no one has thought of it before, for sure,” Stanton said. “I didn’t know if it was, like, a rule-based thing of why they were shaped like that.”
Over and over, MLB officials assured those asking: Yes, the bats are legal and meet the sport’s equipment specifications. Trevor Megill, the Brewers’ closer, complained about the bats, calling them like “something used in slow-pitch softball,” but privately, baseball officials were thrilled by the possibility of seeing offense goosed, something they had been attempting through rule change in recent years.
“It’s all the rage right now, given what transpired over the weekend,” said Jeremy Zoll, assistant general manager of the Twins. “I’m sure more and more guys are going to experiment with it as a result, just to see if it’s something they like.”
That personal preference is a factor for which some front office types believe the mass orders of the bats don’t account: The Yankees’ recommendations to each hitter were based on months of past data of how that player tended to strike the ball. This was not about a one-size-fits all bat; it was about precise bat measurements that reflected an individual player’s swing.
“I had never heard of it. I’ve used the same bat for nine years, so I think I’ll stick with that,” White Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi said. “It’s pretty interesting. It makes sense. If it works for a guy, good for him. If it doesn’t, stick with what you got.”
As longtime player Eric Hosmer explained on the “Baseball Tonight” podcast, the process is a lot like what players can do in golf: look for clubs customized for a player’s particular swing. And, he added, hitting coaches might begin to think more about which bat might be most effective against particular pitchers. If a pitcher tends to throw inside, a torpedo bat could be more effective; if a pitcher is more effective outside, maybe a larger barrel would be more appropriate.
That’s the key, according to an agent representing a player who ordered a bat: “You need years of hitting data in the big leagues to dial it in and hopefully get a better result. He’s still tinkering with it; he may not even use it in a game. … I think of it like switching your irons in golf to blades: It will feel a little different and take some adjusting, and it may even change your swing subtly.”
Two days after the home run explosion, Boone said, “You’re just trying to just get what you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit. And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be — it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”
“I’m kind of starting to smile at it a little more … a lot of things that aren’t real.”
Said the player agent: “It’s not an aluminum bat with plutonium in it like everyone is making it out to be.”
Reliever Adam Ottavino watched this all play out, with his 15 years of experience. “It’s the Yankees and they scored a million runs in the first few games, and it’s cool to hate the Yankees and it’s cool to look for the bogeyman,” Ottavino said, “and that’s what some people are going to do, and [you] can’t really stop that. But there’s also a lot of misinformation and noneducation on it too.”
Major league baseball mostly evolves at a glacial pace. For example, the sport is well into the second century of complaints about the surface of the ball and the debate over financial disparity among teams. From time to time, however, baseball has its eclipses, moments that command full attention and inspire change. On a “Sunday Night Baseball” game on May 18, 2008, an umpire’s botched home run call at Yankee Stadium compelled MLB to implement the first instant replay. Buster Posey’s ankle was shattered in a home plate collision in May 2011, imperiling the career of the young star, and new rules about that type of play were rewritten.
The torpedo bat eruption could turn out to be transformative, a time when the industry became aware how a core piece of equipment has been taken for granted and aware that bats could be more precisely designed to augment the ability of each hitter. Or this could all turn out to be a wild overreaction to an outlier day of home runs against a pitching staff having a really bad day.
On Thursday, Cortes — who had been hammered for five homers over two innings in Yankee Stadium — shut out the Reds for six innings.
In Baltimore, Bregman, who had tried the torpedo bat earlier this week, reverted to his usual stock and had three hits against the Orioles, including a home run. Afterward, Bregman said, “It’s the hitter. Not the bat.”
This story was also reported by Jeff Passan, Jorge Castillo, Jesse Rogers and Kiley McDaniel.
Sports
What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB’s hottest trend
Published
2 hours agoon
April 4, 2025By
admin
The opening weekend of the 2025 MLB season was taken over by a surprise star — torpedo bats.
The bowling pin-shaped bats became the talk of the sport after the Yankees’ home run onslaught on the first Saturday of the season put it in the spotlight and the buzz hasn’t slowed since.
What exactly is a torpedo bat? How does it help hitters? And how is it legal? Let’s dig in.
Read: An MIT-educated professor, the Yankees and the bat that could be changing baseball
What is a torpedo bat and why is it different from a traditional MLB bat?
The idea of the torpedo bat is to take a size format — say, 34 inches and 32 ounces — and distribute the wood in a different geometric shape than the traditional form to ensure the fattest part of the bat is located where the player makes the most contact. Standard bats taper toward an end cap that is as thick diametrically as the sweet spot of the barrel. The torpedo bat moves some of the mass on the end of the bat about 6 to 7 inches lower, giving it a bowling-pin shape, with a much thinner end.
How does it help hitters?
The benefits for those who like swinging with it — and not everyone who has swung it likes it — are two-fold. Both are rooted in logic and physics. The first is that distributing more mass to the area of most frequent contact aligns with players’ swing patterns and provides greater impact when bat strikes ball. Players are perpetually seeking ways to barrel more balls, and while swings that connect on the end of the bat and toward the handle probably will have worse performance than with a traditional bat, that’s a tradeoff they’re willing to make for the additional slug. And as hitters know, slug is what pays.
The second benefit, in theory, is increased bat speed. Imagine a sledgehammer and a broomstick that both weigh 32 ounces. The sledgehammer’s weight is almost all at the end, whereas the broomstick’s is distributed evenly. Which is easier to swing fast? The broomstick, of course, because shape of the sledgehammer takes more strength and effort to move. By shedding some of the weight off the end of the torpedo bat and moving it toward the middle, hitters have found it swings very similarly to a traditional model but with slightly faster bat velocity.
Why did it become such a big story so early in the 2025 MLB season?
Because the New York Yankees hit nine home runs in a game Saturday and Michael Kay, their play-by-play announcer, pointed out that some of them came from hitters using a new bat shape. The fascination was immediate. While baseball, as an industry, has implemented forward-thinking rules in recent seasons, the modification to something so fundamental and known as the shape of a bat registered as bizarre. The initial response from many who saw it: How is this legal?
OK. How is this legal?
Major League Baseball’s bat regulations are relatively permissive. Currently, the rules allow for a maximum barrel diameter of 2.61 inches, a maximum length of 42 inches and a smooth and round shape. The lack of restrictions allows MLB’s authorized bat manufacturers to toy with bat geometry and for the results to still fall within the regulations.
Who came up with the idea of using them?
The notion of a bowling-pin-style bat has kicked around baseball for years. Some bat manufacturers made smaller versions as training tools. But the version that’s now infiltrating baseball goes back two years when a then-Yankees coach named Aaron Leanhardt started asking hitters how they should counteract the giant leaps in recent years made by pitchers.
When Yankees players responded that bigger barrels would help, Leanhardt — an MIT-educated former Michigan physics professor who left academia to work in the sports industry — recognized that as long as bats stayed within MLB parameters, he could change their geometry to make them a reality. Leanhardt, who left the Yankees to serve as major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins over the winter, worked with bat manufacturers throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons to make that a reality.
When did it first appear in MLB games?
It’s unclear specifically when. But Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton used a torpedo bat last year and went on a home run-hitting rampage in October that helped send the Yankees to the World Series. New York Mets star Francisco Lindor also used a torpedo-style bat last year and went on to finish second in National League MVP voting.
Who are some of the other notable early users of torpedo bats?
In addition to Stanton and Lindor, Yankees hitters Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have used torpedoes to great success. Others who have used them in games include Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers and Toronto’s Davis Schneider. And that’s just the beginning. Hundreds more players are expected to test out torpedoes — and perhaps use them in games — in the coming weeks.
How is this different from a corked bat?
Corking bats involves drilling a hole at the end of the bat, filling it in and capping it. The use of altered bats allows players to swing faster because the material with which they replace the wood — whether it’s cork, superballs or another material — is lighter. Any sort of bat adulteration is illegal and, if found, results in suspension.
Could a rule be changed to ban them?
Could it happen? Sure. Leagues and governing bodies have put restrictions on equipment they believe fundamentally altered fairness. Stick curvature is limited in hockey. Full-body swimsuits made of polyurethane and neoprene are banned by World Aquatics. But officials at MLB have acknowledged that the game’s pendulum has swung significantly toward pitching in recent years, and if an offensive revolution comes about because of torpedo bats — and that is far from a guarantee — it could bring about more balance to the game. If that pendulum swings too far, MLB could alter its bat regulations, something it has done multiple times already this century.
So the torpedo bat is here to stay?
Absolutely. Bat manufacturers are cranking them out and shipping them to interested players with great urgency. Just how widely the torpedo bat is adopted is the question that will play out over the rest of the season. But it has piqued the curiosity of nearly every hitter in the big leagues, and just as pitchers toy with new pitches to see if they can marginally improve themselves, hitters will do the same with bats.
Comfort is paramount with a bat, so hitters will test them during batting practice and in cage sessions before unleashing them during the game. As time goes on, players will find specific shapes that are most comfortable to them and best suit their swing during bat-fitting sessions — similar to how golfers seek custom clubs. But make no mistake: This is an almost-overnight alteration of the game, and “traditional or torpedo” is a question every big leaguer going forward will ask himself.
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Bank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway