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As a service to fans who have a general interest in the National Hockey League but have no idea what’s happened since the Colorado Avalanche raised the Stanley Cup by preventing a Tampa Bay Lightning three-peat last year, we’re happy to provide this FAQ as a guide to the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.

For you die-hard puckheads: Here is your official refresher before the games begin. Enjoy!

More: Playoff Central
Full schedule
Regular-season stats

Wait, they’re holding a tournament for the 2023 Stanley Cup? Shouldn’t they just give it to the Boston Bruins?

If the NHL was ever going to cut to the chase and hand the chalice over to a regular-season juggernaut, it would have been this Boston Bruins team.

Boston entered the season with many wondering if its window to win had closed, with a new coach in Jim Montgomery and forward Brad Marchand and defenseman Charlie McAvoy missing the start due to offseason surgery.

Free agent centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci believed differently and re-signed with the team for another crack at the Cup. They were, as it turns out, quite wise to do so.

A brief honor roll of the Bruins’ achievements this season:

  • NHL record for wins in a single season (65), previously held by the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning.

  • NHL record for points in a single season (135), previously held by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens.

  • Went wire-to-wire in first place of the Atlantic Division.

  • NHL record for most consecutive home victories to start a season (14).

  • Tied NHL record for most road victories (31).

  • First team in NHL history to post at least three road winning streaks of seven or more games in a season.

  • Set new franchise records for home and away wins.

  • Became the fifth team in NHL history to have a 60-goal scorer (David Pastrnak, 61) and the leading goaltender in wins (Linus Ullmark, 40).

  • Finished 61 goals ahead of Dallas in goal differential, becoming the third team in the expansion era (since 1967-68) to finish with a goal differential of 60 goals or better over the second-place team in that category.

  • Led the NHL this season in wins, points, goals-against average, penalty kill, wins after leading in the first or second period, wins when scoring first and wins when their opponent scores first.

The Bruins also won the Presidents’ Trophy … which is probably why they won’t win the Stanley Cup, because they’re now cursed.

What’s the Presidents’ Trophy curse?

There have been 36 previous President’s Trophy winners for having the league’s best record. Only 11 of them advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, and only eight of those teams hoisted the Cup. Only three teams in the salary cap era (since 2005-06) have won the Presidents’ Trophy and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.

It’s only gotten tougher in recent years. Since the NHL changed to a wild-card format in 2013-14, there hasn’t been a single Presidents’ Trophy winner that has advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. That Tampa Bay Lightning team whose points record the Bruins topped? It was swept in the first round by the Columbus Blue Jackets and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who plays for the Bruins’ first-round opponent in the Florida Panthers. (As does potential MVP candidate Matthew Tkachuk, whom the Panthers acquired last offseason in a blockbuster trade.)

Otherwise, seven Presidents’ Trophy-winning teams in the wild-card era lost in the second round. That’s where the Bruins could meet either the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Lightning after their fascinating first-round series.

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Bruins set NHL wins record behind David Pastrnak’s hat trick

David Pastrnak nets a hat trick, as the Bruins move alone in the NHL record book with their 63rd win of the season.

The Leafs and Lightning in the first round again, eh?

The current playoff format has deemed it so!

Tampa Bay eliminated Toronto in seven games last season after another stereotypical collapse for the Leafs, who haven’t won a playoff series since 2004. But that streak could end here. Toronto was 13 points better in the standings than the Lightning. The Leafs are loaded offensively with 40-goal scorers Auston Matthews and William Nylander, Mitch Marner (99 points) and John Tavares, who played at a point-per-game pace. In Ilya Samsonov, they might have found their answer in goal. They acquired Ryan O’Reilly at the trade deadline from St. Louis, a former playoff MVP whose postseason savvy could transfer to his teammates through hockey osmosis.

The Lightning have been to the Stanley Cup Final for three straight seasons, winning back-to-back Cups before falling to the Colorado Avalanche last postseason. Has roster attrition finally caught up with coach Jon Cooper’s squad? Tampa is still coping with the losses of defenseman Ryan McDonagh (traded to Nashville) and clutch forward Ondrej Palat (signed with New Jersey). But the Lightning still have a foundation of Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and especially Andrei Vasilevskiy. Which means they have a chance in any series.

But time comes for every champion. Just ask Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin as they watch the playoffs from home this spring.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals didn’t make the playoffs?

For the first time since 2005-06, when Crosby and Ovechkin were fresh-faced rookies, neither the Capitals nor the Penguins qualified for the playoffs. The Capitals played through significant injury absences of players like John Carlson and Tom Wilson to finish with their worst points percentage since 2006-07. The Penguins fumbled the bag in the last week of the season while in control of their playoff fate and watched their 16-year postseason qualification streak end.

There already has been fallout for both teams: The Capitals “mutually parted ways” with coach Peter Laviolette, while the Penguins fired both general manager Ron Hextall and team president Brian Burke in a front-office house cleaning.

With the Caps and Pens sidelined, who are the contenders from the Metro Division?

The Carolina Hurricanes won the Metro for the third straight season and will face the wild-card New York Islanders in the first round. The Islanders are getting healthy at the right time, as star center Mathew Barzal is expected back after being out since mid-February. The Hurricanes are in the opposite boat: They’re without injured wingers Max Pacioretty, out since January with a torn ACL, and Andrei Svechnikov, whom they lost in March. This could be a grind-it-out battle between Carolina, the NHL’s second-best defensive team, and the Islanders, who had one of the league’s top goalies in Ilya Sorokin.

In the other first-round series, we’ve got four words for you: Battle of the Hudson.

What can we expect from a Devils vs. Rangers series?

Lots of blue in New Jersey and an increasing amount of red at Madison Square Garden.

For the first time since the New Jersey Devils eliminated the New York Rangers in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals, these unfriendly neighbors will square off in the playoffs. The Rangers made the conference finals last season with star goalie Igor Shesterkin, Norris-winning defenseman Adam Fox and star forwards Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad.

The Rangers’ star power only intensified at the trade deadline: They acquired Chicago Blackhawks superstar Patrick Kane and St. Louis Blues scorer Vladimir Tarasenko. Kane, seeking his fourth career Stanley Cup win, has 12 points in 19 games for the Rangers.

The Devils, meanwhile, ended their rebuild with their first playoff berth since 2018. The season began with fans chanting for coach Lindy Ruff to be fired. It ended with a new franchise record for points in a season (112) and with star center Jack Hughes setting a new franchise single-season scoring record (99 points). Hughes, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt, as well as defenseman Dougie Hamilton, fuel the Devils’ high-tempo offense and aggressive defense.

The Devils’ 49-point increase in the standings year over year was one of the most dramatic in NHL history … and almost matched by the turnaround for the second-year Seattle Kraken in the West.

How did the Kraken make the playoffs?

Many were disappointed when the Kraken didn’t replicate the first-year success of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, failing to make the playoffs let alone make the Stanley Cup Final like Vegas did. But they cracked the code in Year 2, posting a 100-point season for a 60-point improvement year over year.

Unlike last season, their goaltending was good when it needed to be, although ultimately the Kraken finished 30th in team save percentage. But it was Seattle’s offense that made them a playoff team, finishing fourth in the NHL in goals per game thanks to a 40-goal season from Jared McCann, a career high in points by defenseman Vince Dunn and most importantly a breakout season from rookie center Matty Beniers. The Calder Trophy favorite had 57 points in 80 games, playing big minutes.

The Kraken finished in the first wild-card spot, earning them a first-round date with the Central Division champion Colorado Avalanche.

What’s the deal with the Avalanche?

Things for the defending Stanley Cup champions are … different. Last summer saw the departure of center Nazem Kadri (Flames) and Andre Burakovsky (Kraken) — who were both among their top-5 scorers — as well as starting goalie Darcy Kuemper (Capitals), whom they replaced with Rangers backup Alexandar Georgiev. This season saw the injury bug munching on the Avs, as only eight players managed to appear in 70 games. Captain Gabriel Landeskog missed the season and has now been ruled out for the postseason as well.

Unfortunately for the Kraken, some things are the same for the Avalanche. Like winger Mikko Rantanen, who scored 55 goals this season to set a career high, and defenseman Cale Makar, who had 65 points in 60 games. Like the will of Nathan MacKinnon, their leading scorer with 111 points. He factored in on all four goals they scored in Friday’s win over Nashville to earn the Central Division title over Dallas. As we saw last postseason: MacKinnon will push his team as far as it can go.

Who are the Stars playing?

The Minnesota Wild, as the former North Stars face the State of Hockey’s squad for just the second time ever.

The Stars had their best points percentage (.659) since 2015-16. The line of Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz terrorized opponents, while Dallas mainstays Jamie Benn (33 goals) and Tyler Seguin (50 points) had strong seasons. Defenseman Miro Heiskanen shattered his previous career marks for points with 73 on the season. Goalie Jake Oettinger fulfilled the promise of his stellar playoff performance last season. All of this was with new coach Pete DeBoer behind the bench, who famously took the Devils and Sharks to the Stanley Cup Final in his first season with those teams.

The Wild, meanwhile, reminded us all never to judge a trade before it plays out. Please recall when they re-signed Marc-Andre Fleury last year, which made fellow Minnesota goalie Cam Talbot quite unhappy. So the Wild traded Talbot to Ottawa for goalie Filip Gustavsson in a move that was universally labeled as a downgrade in goal.

Fast-forward 82 games and “The Gus Bus” had 22 wins while finishing third in goals-against average (2.10) and second in save percentage (.931) for goalies with at least 25 games played. The Wild have some options in goal this postseason after their goaltending faltered in the 2022 playoffs.

Meanwhile, star winger Kirill Kaprizov was brilliant again, with 40 goals and 75 points in 67 games, finishing 78 points behind Connor McDavid in the scoring race.

How good was Connor McDavid this season?

McDavid reached a new form in his Pokémon-like evolution into a hockey deity. The 26-year-old Edmonton Oilers center finished with 153 points in 82 games, the 15th-highest total in NHL history and the best offensive season since Mario Lemieux’s 161 points in 1995-96. McDavid’s 64 goals were the highest since Alex Ovechkin’s 65 tallies in 2007-08.

These career bests for McDavid have him primed to run away with MVP and player of the year honors, finishing 25 points ahead of the NHL’s second-leading scorer: his Edmonton teammate Leon Draisaitl.

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All 64 of Connor McDavid’s goals for the Oilers in 64 seconds

Relive all of Connor McDavid’s 2022-23 regular-season goals for the Edmonton Oilers in just 64 seconds.

Will the efforts of McDavid and Draisaitl once again be undermined by the rest of the Oilers in the playoffs?

Not necessarily. They have a strong supporting cast at forward, including Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (a career-best 104 points), Zach Hyman and Evander Kane. The Oilers’ acquisition of defenseman Mattias Ekholm from the Predators at the trade deadline was clutch: He had 14 points in 21 games.

But their postseason fortunes could come down to one player: rookie goalie Stuart Skinner, who won 29 games in the regular season and stabilized the position after free agent coup Jack Campbell struggled (.888 save percentage). Although, in fairness, the Oilers did make the conference finals last season with absolutely chaotic goaltending, eliminating the Los Angeles Kings, their first-round opponent this season, along the way.

Can the Kings win another Cup with Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty?

Absolutely. The Kings are a fascinating team in the playoffs. They still have Kopitar and Doughty, two-time Stanley Cup winners. They have a slew of younger homegrown talents, from Adrian Kempe (41 goals) to 2020 No. 2 overall pick Quinton Byfield, making an impact. And then they have a collection of veteran acquisitions that GM Rob Blake has added in the past two seasons: forwards Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson before last season; star winger Kevin Fiala before this season; defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and goalie Joonas Korpisalo at the trade deadline from the Columbus Blue Jackets.

It could all add up to a Stanley Cup run for coach Todd McLellan’s club. Or, at the very least, a second-round meeting with Jonathan Quick‘s new team, the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Golden Knights are back in the playoffs?

Not only that, they set a new franchise record for points (111) in a season, which sounds impressive until you remember they’re a 6-year-old. It’s never dull in Vegas, and this season was no exception:

  • A new head coach in former Bruins boss Bruce Cassidy.

  • The loss of starting goalie Robin Lehner to offseason hip surgery that led to the team using five goalies this season, from rookie Logan Thompson to Quick, whom they acquired from Columbus at the deadline.

  • The loss of captain Mark Stone to a back injury that put him on the shelf on Jan. 12.

Stone will return for the Knights in the playoffs, bolstering a lineup that featured a strong performance from star Jack Eichel (66 points in 67 games).

They also have an official mascot goldfish.

Vegas has a playoff goldfish?

Some teams have official dog mascots. Vegas has … Goldie:

Hey, if the Golden Knights lose to the Winnipeg Jets in the first round, at least their mascot won’t remember it five minutes later.

What’s the deal with the Jets?

Winnipeg outlasted the Calgary Flames for the final wild-card spot in the West. Coach Rick Bowness has used every trick in the book to motivate his team and spark his veteran core. Many of them responded, including a Norris Trophy-worthy season from defenseman Josh Morrissey (76 points). But in the end, it was another “Connor Hellebuyck drags the Jets to the playoffs” season, as the former Vezina winner started 64 games and won 37 of them with a .920 save percentage.

That’s the glory of the playoffs: Goaltending remains the great equalizer. Even when we’re clearly in an offensive era for the NHL.

Defense has no home in the current NHL?

The numbers don’t lie: After what many thought would be a temporary spike due to last season’s COVID-related absences and postponements, the NHL saw its offensive output increase again to 3.18 goals per team per game — the highest average scoring season since 1993-94 (3.24). One major reason: power-play efficiency. Teams converted power-play chances at a 21.32% rate, which was the highest since 1985-86 (22.1%).

Will we see scoring continue like that in the playoffs? Or, in the end, does defense win championships?

Good thing the Boston Bruins are basically the best at both …

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What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB’s hottest trend

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April 5, 2025

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What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB's hottest trend

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

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April 5, 2025

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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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D-backs’ Marte strains hamstring, placed on IL

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April 5, 2025

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D-backs' Marte strains hamstring, placed on IL

  • Associated Press

Apr 4, 2025, 08:23 PM ET

WASHINGTON — Arizona second basemen Ketel Marte was put on the 10-day injured list Saturday, a day after leaving the Diamondbacks’ 6-4 victory over the Nationals in the first inning with a strained left hamstring sustained while running the bases.

Marte hit a long ball to the wall in center field, and as he rounded first base and headed to second, he started to stutter-step. He pulled in slowly for a standup double while holding his left hamstring.

“To see him pull up like that in the first inning was not, no one in the dugout was feeling good,” said right fielder Corbin Carroll, who hit two home runs and drove in three runs for Arizona.

Marte limped off the field under the supervision of the team’s training staff and was replaced by Garrett Hampson.

Infielder Tim Tawa was recalled Saturday from Triple-A Reno.

“We budget for these hard times,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “The timing of it isn’t ideal, but we have players that are ready to step in and hold down the fort until he gets back.”

Marte also had hamstring injuries in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

He agreed to a contract Wednesday that guarantees the All-Star $116.5 million through 2031, a six-year deal that includes a player option and $46 million in deferred money payable through 2040.

Marte is hitting .346 this season in eight games and has reached base in every game.

He finished third in National League MVP voting last season, hitting .292 while setting career highs with 36 homers and 95 RBIs.

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