The prep QB phenom and a million-dollar NIL question
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Pete ThamelESPN
High school freshman Julian Lewis has already made a Georgia state title game as a starting quarterback, has Ohio State, USC and Georgia among his 35 scholarship offers and has gone viral by wowing NFL stars with his skills.
The 15-year-old profiles as the precocious prodigy in nearly every way, even carrying the memorable nickname “JuJu.” Lewis has the same high school football coach as Trevor Lawrence and the same trainer who oversaw Lawrence and Justin Fields in their formative years in Georgia. None are holding back on what’s possible for Lewis.
“I’ve had the privilege of coaching Trevor Lawrence,” said Carrollton High School coach Joey King. “He’s in the same category as Trevor. The skill set and arm talent he has are definitely advanced for his age.”
Adds noted Atlanta-area trainer Ron Veal: “He’s right there with [Fields and Lawrence]. As far as ability-wise, he’s right on par with them.”
But after throwing 48 touchdown passes as a freshman and amassing 113,000 Instagram followers, Lewis is a new-age recruit with an age-old high school problem — he can’t make money off his popularity.
While more than half of the states in the country have legalized Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals in some form for high school athletes, the state of Georgia sits at a compelling crossroads. It is home to one of the richest recruiting bases in the country, the back-to-back national champions of college football and a generational prospect in Lewis, who could command well over a million dollars on the open market over the next three seasons.
Georgia is also the setting of perhaps the most notable high school cautionary tale in the NIL era, as a defensive lineman named T.A. Cunningham left the state to seek out NIL money in California last year and ended up ensnared in a thicket of broken promises and eligibility issues that required a court fight to get resolved.
That leaves Georgia as a fascinating test of figuring out a way to navigate amateurism’s new realities, in part to be sure to retain top talent. This all happens as Lewis’ father, T.C., watches his son’s games sold for local television and sponsors line up for award ceremonies honoring him.
“It’s all part of the football revenue-generating machine,” T.C. Lewis told ESPN. “The entire football machine is making money, not the players. It’s real.”
The reality for Lewis is he’ll be the face of the case for NIL in the state of Georgia. He said he doesn’t think about it much, but if NIL were made legal he’d find ways to procure deals that would also benefit his teammates. He said the conversations mostly happen with his dad, but occasionally with his friends.
He calls the lack of the ability to profit off his own NIL “definitely a little saddening,” and sums up the reality succinctly: “It’s not fair, to be honest.”
For now, the Lewis family looks unlikely to follow Cunningham’s path and flee Georgia for greener pastures. T.C. Lewis said his son’s long-term growth is the priority, which is why they have no plans to look out of state for a different high school. They aren’t naïve to the opportunities, but are happy to keep developing.
“As the season evolved and with the success that Julian had and where he and Coach King are and how he uses him, Julian and I have had extended discussions, and we’re willing to sacrifice short-term money for long-term development,” T.C. Lewis said. “At this point in time, we wouldn’t leave Georgia. We’re used to what we’re leaving on the table.”
Just how high that number would be is ambiguous, but it would only escalate if Lewis continues on his current trajectory. The top QB recruit in the Class of 2023, California native Malachi Nelson, was slated to sign close to a million dollars in NIL deals by the time he enrolled at USC. T.C. Lewis also mentions California prep basketball stars like Bronny James — who has been able to ink deals with Nike and Beats by Dre — and Mikey Williams, who signed a multiyear deal with Puma.
T.C. Lewis is a tech entrepreneur, so when Julian had the idea to start a company for slide sandals, they launched it when he was in seventh grade. They quickly shut it down, however, out of fear of risking eligibility. Lewis and his family are being followed around for a docuseries, including during his state-title-winning season. But they can’t profit off that, either. (Not even with payments deferred to after he’s done as an amateur.)
“At the end of the day, if your popularity comes from football, you can’t use that popularity to make money,” T.C. Lewis said. “There’s huge opportunities for Julian coming up. We have great relationships here locally and nationally. We’ve turned down so much already.”
Attorney Donald Woodard is advising the Lewis family, having become familiar with NIL through his work for USA Track and Field. He’d met T.C. Lewis years before in connection to one of Lewis’ business projects, and has been advising the family on what they can and can’t do in the NIL space for nearly two years.
Woodard sees the same arguments that for years were made at the NCAA level for athletes getting some type of compensation simply trickling down to the high-school level. He sees a similar “ecosystem” generating money in high school that existed in college.
T.C. Lewis estimates “on the low end,” his son could make $500,000 while in high school. He estimates the high-end at $1.5 million and pointed out they recently turned down a $60,000 opportunity.
“We’re hopeful that Georgia will come on board soon,” Woodard said. “Not just for Julian, but for all athletes in Georgia. The market will dictate which athletes are deserving.”
Georgia High School Association executive director Robin Hines declined comment on Lewis, saying they don’t discuss individual athletes. He did say the GHSA are in the process of researching what other states are doing and consulting with their own attorneys to find the best way forward for something in Georgia.
(Officials at the University of Georgia didn’t return calls seeking comment, but it stands to reason they’d want the best local high school talent staying in-state.)
While the GHSA is “way at the beginning” of the process, Hines said there’s a “possibility” a proposal could be moved forward in April. But first, they need to figure out an approach that makes sense, as he acknowledges there’s “only a small percentage of athletes” who would benefit.
He did say the prospect of losing top athletes like Cunningham to states with NIL isn’t looming over the decision-making.
“We certainly don’t want to be left behind, but we also want to do what’s in the best interest of our student athletes while maintaining our credibility as an amateur association,” Hines told ESPN in a phone interview. “That’s a tightrope to walk.”
Meanwhile, Julian Lewis will continue walking the tightrope of regular teenager and teenage star. After his Christmas money started to run out last month, he told his father that he wanted to get a job for spending cash. T.C. Lewis said he didn’t think that was a good idea.
His dad told him he doesn’t have time to hold a job and jokes he will pay him to train. T.C. Lewis does admit that the bills are real, from coaches to traveling the country for training and events.
In recent weeks, Lewis has gone to both USC and LSU. He has tripped to Alabama multiple times to see games because of its proximity to home. It’s too early to project any favorites, but T.C. Lewis said he has already raised his son to not be a fan of any team. He doesn’t want the emotion of fandom getting in the way of business.
“We keep the main thing the main thing,” he said. “NIL is going to play a huge part, but it’s not going to be the deciding factor. At the end of the day, if some school says we’re going to give you $5 million, if you can’t develop him or get him to where he wants to go, it doesn’t matter.”
The uptick in hype and attention hasn’t really fazed Julian Lewis. There are videos of him at age 9 with Justin Fields snapping him the balls for drills. Lewis didn’t know him as a top prospect, just a big-brother figure he trained with. That’s why the steps toward stardom — high school phenom, college prospect, eventual college starter and beyond — feel attainable for Lewis.
The Lewis’ are hopeful the GHSA passes some type of rule that will allow him to profit off his talents, but they haven’t done any direct lobbying. For now, Julian Lewis is seeking a typical teen experience, knowing that might be fleeting.
“Of course, I like being noticed and called out on certain things,” he said of his burgeoning fame. “But at some points, I want to walk around and be normal. We’re at the point where there’s no time to be normal. No one thinks of me as normal. I’m still 15. I want to be a kid. I want to go out and have fun and be chill.”
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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‘It’s taken on a life of its own’: Inside the 48 hours torpedo bats launched into baseball lore
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.
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.
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