
MLB Awards Week: Yankees’ Gerrit Cole, Padres’ Blake Snell win Cy Young
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adminWelcome to MLB Awards Week.
As we look ahead to 2024 and await some of the offseason’s biggest free agent signings (where will you go, Shohei Ohtani?), we celebrate the best players in the game during the 2023 regular season.
The week started off with Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson unanimously winning American League Rookie of the Year honors and Corbin Carroll also winning unanimously in the National League. Next up, Henderson’s skipper, Brandon Hyde, took home AL Manager of the Year, with Skip Schumaker taking home the NL silverware.
On Wednesday, San Diego’s Blake Snell took home his second Cy Young Award — this time in the NL, after having previously won in the AL in 2018 — while New York’s Gerrit Cole unanimously won the AL’s Cy Young, the first in his career.
The awards schedule is as follows (all awards announced starting at 6 p.m. ET):
Monday: Jackie Robinson Rookies of the Year: Corbin Carroll, Gunnar Henderson
Tuesday: Managers of the Year: Brandon Hyde, Skip Schumaker
Wednesday: Cy Young Awards: Blake Snell, Gerrit Cole
Thursday: MVP Awards
Below, we list the three finalists in each category, along with what you need to know before the results are announced and our picks to take home the hardware. We’ll update each section with news and analysis from Bradford Doolittle as the awards are handed out.
Jump to … :
Rookie of the Year: AL | NL
Manager of the Year: AL | NL
Cy Young: AL | NL
MVP: AL | NL
American League Cy Young
Winner: Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees
Final tally: Cole, 210 (30 first-place votes); Sonny Gray, Twins 104; Kevin Gausman, Blue Jays 82; Kyle Bradish, Orioles 39; Luis Castillo, Mariners 23; Zach Eflin, Rays 19; Pablo Lopez, Twins 11; George Kirby, Mariners 8; Framber Valdez, Astros 6; Chris Bassitt, Blue Jays 4; Felix Bautista, Orioles 3; Chris Martin, Red Sox 1
Experts’ picks: Cole (13 votes) (unanimous choice)
Doolittle’s take: Gerrit Cole ranked seventh among active big league pitchers with 40.7 career bWAR following his 2023 campaign. The six pitchers ahead of him won a combined 12 Cy Young awards. The only pitcher ahead of Cole without a trophy was Boston’s Chris Sale, whose career has been more or less derailed by injury for the last half-decade. That made the argument that Cole was the best active pitcher without a Cy Young an easy call. Suffice to say, Cole is happy to no longer be a part of that conversation.
Timing is everything when it comes to awards because whether you win doesn’t just depend on what you do, but what everyone else does. Whether or not you see 2023 as Cole’s best season depends on what statistics and metrics you value. To me, he’s had better seasons, if only because he’s posted much higher strikeout rates in the past. His 9.6 strikeouts per nine innings was his lowest figure in six years. Yet Cole managed to lead the AL in ERA+ (165), ERA (2.63) and innings pitched (209). Despite allowing more balls in play than normal, he still led the league in fewest hits allowed per nine innings (6.8) while slashing 13 homers off his AL-high figure of 33 in 2022.
Now, at age 32 and four years into the nine-year contract he signed with the Yankees in 2020, Cole has not only been worth the $36 million per season investment so far, but his evolution this past season showed that there is plenty of reason to believe that he will continue to justify his massive salary. Cole remains a fixture in any team’s dream rotation, and while the 2023 Yankees had a lot of problems, he certainly wasn’t one of them. In fact, he is the sixth Yankee to win a Cy Young but the first to do so in a year in which the Yankees didn’t make the World Series. (The others: Bob Turley, 1958; Whitey Ford, 1961; Sparky Lyle, 1977; Ron Guidry, 1978; Roger Clemens, 2001).
At this point, Cole has 145 career wins, 40.7 bWAR, 2,152 career strikeouts and a league-adjusted ERA+ that’s 30 points better than average. He owns two ERA titles and has been an All-Star six times. And, now, he has a Cy Young trophy to put on his mantle. Of course, it’s too soon to start talking Cooperstown for Cole, but it’s not hard to see a path for him getting there. As the role of the starting pitcher has morphed over time, especially during Cole’s time in the majors, we’ll eventually have to take a stern look at what it means to be a Hall of Fame pitcher in a 21st century context. Cole is on his way to establishing the paradigm for what that looks like.
Here’s how my AXE leaderboard had it:
1. Cole, Yankees (153 AXE)
2. Gray, Twins (143)
3. (tie) Gausman, Blue Jays (134)
Bradish, Orioles (134)
5. Kirby, Mariners (133)
National League Cy Young
Winner: Blake Snell, San Diego Padres
Final tally: Snell, 204 (28 first-place votes); Logan Webb, Giants 86 (1); Zac Gallen, D-backs 68 (1); Spencer Strider, Braves 64; Justin Steele, Cubs 32; Zack Wheeler, Phillies 28; Kodai Senga, Mets 15; Corbin Burnes, Brewers 13
Experts’ picks: Snell (12 votes), Webb (1)
Doolittle’s take: There just wasn’t much that separated the top candidates in the NL this season. If anything, Snell’s win is an interesting snapshot of what voters ballot in modern-day Cy Young voting. That’s not to take anything away from his campaign, but you could have made a cogent argument for any of the top six on the AXE leaderboard and I might have been swayed.
In some ways, Snell has become the consummate ace, circa 2023. He prevented runs better than any other pitcher in the NL, which is why he won the award. He led the league with a 2.25 ERA, and his ERA+ was a robust 182. He can be maddening to watch because he just doesn’t give in to a hitter. That keeps his whiff rate elite (11.7 per nine innings) but also means a lot of walks (5.0) — though hitters needed those walks to get on base because Snell yielded an absurdly-low 5.8 hits per nine innings.
The cost of the way Snell works, however, is that he doesn’t often keep deep into games. He led the NL with 99 pitches thrown per game but ranked just 18th in innings pitched per start. Despite making 32 starts on the season, he ranked just 10th in innings pitched (180). He labors to keep runs off the board and while he requires more bullpen support than your typical ace, at his best, he is really hard to score against.
Snell is the 22nd pitcher to win multiple Cy Young awards. In some ways, he’s perhaps the most unlikely hurler to do so.
Now eight years into his career, this is just the second time Snell has compiled enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. But when he has, he has actually won those ERA titles both times … and won a Cy Young Award. Other than a lower win total, his 2023 season for the Padres is a virtual copy of his Cy Young season for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018. Other than those two standout seasons, Snell has never reached even 130 innings pitched despite a career ERA+ of 127. He’s a quality-over-quantity guy, a true avatar for the current description of a rotation ace.
As I mentioned earlier, good arguments could have been made for the others — especially the other finalists, Webb and Gallen, who both threw at least 30 more innings than Snell did. These days, innings may be the single most telltale detail of a starter’s season because a high total doesn’t just suggest durability and pitch efficiency, but also excellence in those innings — or else many of them would have been allotted to the bullpen. Still, when you keep runs off the board at a top-of-the-charts rate and take all your turns in the rotation as Snell did, it’s a hard combination to beat.
Here’s how my AXE leaderboard had it:
1. (tie) Snell, Padres (142 AXE)
Webb, Giants (142)
3. Wheeler, Phillies (139)
4. Gallen, Diamondbacks (138)
5. (tie) Steele, Cubs (134)
Strider, Braves (134)
American League Manager of the Year
Winner: Brandon Hyde, Baltimore Orioles
Final tally: Hyde 144 (27 first-place votes); Bruce Bochy, Rangers 61 (3); Kevin Cash, Rays 52; Rocco Baldelli, Twins 8; Dusty Baker, Astros 4; John Schneider, Blue Jays 1
Experts’ picks: Hyde (9 votes), Bochy (4)
Doolittle’s take: Anyone paying attention knew the Orioles were a franchise poised to bust out — but few thought they’d do so in a 100-plus win fashion, let alone this year, just two seasons removed from a 110-loss season. With the laid back Hyde setting the tone, the Baby Birds won more game than any Baltimore team since the days of Earl Weaver, Jim Palmer and Eddie Murray. The O’s added 18 wins to their 2022 win total (83) — which was in itself a major surprise.
While the manager awards are the hardest to contextualize with metrics at the individual level, Hyde stood out in all the areas that tend to attract observers to managerial excellence. Baltimore outperformed its run profile by 7.2 wins, second-largest positive gap in the majors. The Orioles beat their preseason over-under consensus by 23.5 wins, making them easily the most surprising team in baseball. And they went 30-16 in one-run games.
Beyond that, the Orioles were just fun, as Hyde and his staff continue to transition some of the game’s most promising young players into the big-league level. Who will forget the “Homer Hose” which was totally not at all exactly like a fraternity party beer bong?
Some managers are hired ostensibly to be a rebuild skipper, to hold down the fort as the losses pile up and the team builds its roster to contention worthiness. Often, those beleaguered managers are fired in favor of a big-name skipper as soon as the team starts contending. Anything can happen, of course, but it sure looks like Hyde and the Orioles are a fit poised for a long run together.
Hyde becomes the fourth Oriole to win AL Manager of the Year honors, joining Frank Robinson (1989), Davey Johnson (1997) and Buck Showalter (2014). Bochy finished a distant second, so he’ll have to be content with his fourth World Series trophy. Chances are he’s happy to do just that.
Here’s how my EARL leaderboard had it:
1. Hyde, Orioles (17.3)
2. A.J. Hinch, Tigers (8.9)
3. Cash, Rays (4.8)
4. Bochy, Rangers (0.4)
5. Scott Servais, Mariners (minus-0.3)
Note: EARL is a metric that looks at how a team’s winning percentage varies from expectations generated by projections, run differential and one-run record. While attributing these measures to managerial performance is presumptive, the metric does tend to track well with the annual balloting.
Manager of the Year must-reads:
How the Baltimore Orioles went from raw talent to really good
Why Bruce Bochy might be the greatest manager ever
National League Manager of the Year
Winner: Skip Schumaker, Miami Marlins
Final tally: Schumaker, 72 (8 first-place votes); Craig Counsell, Brewers 51 (5); Brian Snitker, Braves 48 (8); Torey Lovullo, Diamondbacks 42 (4); Dave Roberts, Dodgers 41 (4); David Bell, Reds 13 (1); David Ross, Cubs 3
Experts’ picks: Counsell (7 votes), Schumaker (6)
Doolittle’s take: First off, I have to point out that the voters overlooked a prime candidate in David Bell, who led a rookie-laden Reds team to a 20-win improvement. Whether he did a superior job to Schumacher, Counsell or Snitker is an open debate — but the latter two piloted teams that most observers felt would contend, and Snitker led a loaded Braves team that you could all but pencil into the playoffs. None of this is to knock the finalists, but more to give some props to the overlooked Bell.
The Marlins hired Schumker, a former Cardinals coach, last winter to succeed Don Mattingly. The first-year skipper was up for the challenge, leading Miami to a 15-win improvement, a winning record and a surprise wild-card slot. And so he out-paced Counsell in the voting and prevents the Cubs’ new manager from being honored for his work in leading his old team past his new team in the NL Central race. (Baseball gets confusing at times.)
The Marlins outperformed their run profile by an MLB-high 9.1 wins this season on the strength of a surreal 33-14 record in one-run games. Leading a team that lacked offensive firepower — Miami ranked 14th in park-adjusted run scoring — Schumaker guided his club through a surfeit of tight, low-scoring games, belying his lack of experience as the top guy in the dugout. It’s hard to argue against his place atop the balloting.
At 43, the future looks bright for Schumaker at a time when his team is again feeling around for the elusive stability that has always eluded the Marlins franchise. He’s the fourth Marlins pilot to win Manager of the Year Honors. The previous three — Jack McKeon (2003), Joe Girardi (2006) and Mattingly (2020) — led the Marlins for a combined total of four seasons after being honored.
Counsell, perhaps the game’s best manager, has still never won the award — he’s now finished second in the balloting four times. Snitker fell short in his bid to win his second; he, too, has finished fourth or better in the voting in each of the last six years.
Here’s how my EARL leaderboard had it:
1. Bell, Reds (8.5)
2. Snitker, Braves (6.6)
3. Schumacher, Marlins (6.2)
4. Dave Martinez, Nationals (5.7)
5. Lovullo, Diamondbacks (5.5)
Manager of the Year must-reads:
Why Cubs stole Craig Counsell from Brewers
How Craig Counsell reset the managerial salary landscape — maybe forever
American League Rookie of the Year
Winner: Gunnar Henderson, Baltimore Orioles
Final tally: Henderson, 150 (30 first-place votes); Tanner Bibee, Guardians 67; Triston Casas, Red Sox 25; Josh Jung, Rangers 16; Yainer Diaz, Astros 6; Masataka Yoshida, Red Sox 3; Edouard Julien, Twins 2; Anthony Volpe, Yankees 1
Experts’ picks: Henderson (13 votes) (unanimous choice)
Bradford Doolittle’s take: In many years, you are tempted to throw out the observation that the Rookie of the Year isn’t necessarily the best prospect in a season. This time around, the argument is more about whose long-term outlook is more sparkling — the AL’s Henderson or the NL’s Carroll. In terms of preseason consensus, both entered the season as the top prospect in their respective league, and, all these months later, they are no-brainer picks for the Rookie of the Year awards. It’s nice when things line up like that.
Henderson struggled at the plate early in the season. By the end of the season, he was a catalyst in the Orioles’ lineup, finishing with 28 homers. And he took over as Baltimore’s everyday shortstop, moving over from the hot corner in June. From there, he played at short more often but could flip back depending on the needs of the lineup. His defensive metrics were strong at both spots.
Moving forward, there is room for Henderson to get even better. He hit just .199 with a .595 OPS against lefties, carrying over the platoon split he displayed in the minors. That’s probably more of a concern for future Orioles opponents than it is for Henderson.
Henderson becomes the first Oriole to win AL Rookie of the Year honors since Cal Ripken Jr. in 1982. Last season, Adley Rutschman finished second in the voting behind Julio Rodriguez. With Jackson Holliday a popular pick as the current top prospect in the game, this foundation for the Orioles just keeps getting stronger and deeper.
Here’s how my AXE leaderboard had it:
1. Henderson, Diamondbacks (130 AXE)
2. Bibee, Guardians (118)
3. Zack Gelof, Athletics (113)
4. (tie) Royce Lewis, Twins (112)
Edouard Julien, Twins (112)
Yennier Cano, Orioles (112)
Note: AXE is an index that creates a consensus rating from the leading value metrics (WAR, from Fangraphs and Baseball Reference) and contextual metrics (win probability added and championship probability added, both from Baseball Reference).
Rookie the Year must-reads:
How young Orioles rode their talent to the AL’s best record
National League Rookie of the Year
Winner: Corbin Carroll, Arizona Diamondbacks
Final tally: Carroll, 150 (30 first-place votes); Kodai Senga, Mets 71; James Outman, Dodgers 20; Nolan Jones, Rockies 17; Matt McLain, Reds 5; Spencer Steer, Reds 4; Eury Perez, Marlins 1; Elly De La Cruz, Reds 1; Patrick Bailey, Giants 1
Experts’ picks: Carroll (13 votes) (unanimous choice)
Doolittle’s take: The NL’s 2023 rookie class was a strong one, but after April, there was little drama in the race for this award. Carroll rolled to a .910 OPS during the first month, though he was a bit overshadowed by James Outman‘s powerful first month for the Dodgers. After that, it was all Carroll, who displayed both the consistent and the spectacular on his way to a historic rookie campaign.
Carroll is the complete package at the plate. At 22, he manifested speed (54 steals, NL-high 10 triples), power (25 homers, .506 slugging), contact (.285 average) and discipline (57 walks and 13 HBPs). He hit at home (.902 OPS) and on the road (.843). He hit righties (.286) and lefties (.283), though he showed a lot more slug against righties. He became the first rookie to reach 25 homers and 50 steals in the same season.
Carroll was a beast in the early rounds of the postseason during Arizona’s unlikely run to the World Series, but he trailed off in the National League Championship Series and the Fall Classic. He’s not a finished product at 22, but who is? As with Henderson, that he still has weaknesses to iron out is a scary prospect for Arizona opponents. Carroll is the first Diamondbacks player to be named Rookie of the Year.
As mentioned, this was an awfully good rookie class in the NL. The Reds were a one-team ROY ballot on their own, with McLain, Elly de la Cruz, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Spencer Steer and Andrew Abbott all among the first-year standouts.
The Mets and Giants found their catchers of the future in 2023 (Francisco Alvarez and Patrick Bailey). The Brewers graduated a plethora of exciting outfielders (Sal Frelick, Joey Weimer, Garrett Mitchell). The Rockies’ dismal season was partially redeemed by the play and promise flashed by shortstop Ezequiel Tovar. Senga was the best thing that happened in the Mets’ disappointing year.
Ahead of this impressive group was Carroll, who, along with Henderson, showed us that sometimes even the most hyped prospects turn out to live up to their advanced billing.
Here’s how my AXE leaderboard had it:
1. Carroll, Diamondbacks (137)
2. (tie) Senga, Mets (122)
Jones, Rockies (122)
4. Outman, Dodgers (120)
5. McLain, Reds (117)
Rookie of the Year must-reads:
American League MVP
Finalists:
• Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels
• Corey Seager, Texas Rangers
• Marcus Semien, Texas Rangers
Experts’ pick: Ohtani (13 votes) (unanimous choice)
What to know: We have written similar things about Ohtani for years now, but we’ve never seen anyone do what he did in 2023. At the plate, he led the AL with 44 homers, a .412 on-base percentage and a .654 slugging percentage. On the mound, he went 10-5 with 167 strikeouts and a 3.14 ERA. He earned 10.0 WAR at Baseball-Reference.com, 2.6 more than any other player in the AL, and 9.0 at Fangraphs, 2.7 more than anyone else. There is just no good argument for another player.
Still, even as Ohtani is a shoo-in for his second MVP trophy, the early end to his season and the Angels’ disappointing 73-89 record make this possibly anticlimactic to some voters. He threw his last pitch on Aug. 23 and made his last trip to the plate on Sept. 3. Not only did this quash Othani’s quest to post the best season in history, but it might have actually swayed some voters to turn to Seager, who missed a chunk of regular-season time as well. That might be especially true if the playoffs were considered, as Seager once again transmogrified into Playoff Seager when the games mattered most. — Bradford Doolittle
MVP must-reads:
Shohei Ohtani Tracker: Where will MLB’s top free agent land?
Is Corey Seager the new Mr. October?
National League MVP
Finalists:
• Ronald Acuna Jr., Atlanta Braves
• Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers
• Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers
Experts’ picks: Acuna (12 votes), Betts (1)
What to know: The results from our experts’ picks suggest this will be a runaway victory for Acuna — and it probably will be — but that belies how close of a race this was between Acuna and Betts. In fWAR, they ended up tied at 8.3. In bWAR, Betts holds the smallest of edges at 8.3 to 8.2. In most seasons, that would lead to a hotly contested MVP debate, but Acuna had the flashier numbers: 41 home runs and 73 steals, becoming not just the fifth member of the 40/40 club, but blowing past that group to create the 40/70 club.
Besides leading the majors in stolen bases, Acuna led the NL in runs, hits, OBP, OPS and total bases. Despite those gaudy numbers and despite Acuna being the favorite for most of the season, Betts had arguably pulled ahead entering the final month, after hitting .455 with 11 home runs and 30 RBIs in August. Indeed, via FanGraphs, Betts led in WAR, 7.7 to 6.7, at the end of August. Betts, however, struggled in September, hitting .244 with one home run, while Acuna finished with a burst, hitting .340 with 11 home runs. He should join Freeman (2020), Chipper Jones (1999) and Dale Murphy (1982-83) as Braves players to win MVP honors since the franchise moved to Atlanta. — David Schoenfield
MVP must-reads:
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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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