
Shohei Ohtani dominoes: Predicting the moves that will follow once the No. 1 free agent signs
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adminAll eyes have been on Shohei Ohtani this offseason — and understandably so, as the two-way star is expected to sign a contract in the range of $500 to $600 million, the largest guarantee in North American sports history.
But his free agency has been shrouded in secrecy, with little known about his career desires, where he wants to play and which team’s he has been talking to — though that changed during MLB’s winter meetings as certain teams acknowledged meeting with Ohtani, despite warnings from Ohtani’s camp about sharing that type of information.
So, as we await Ohtani’s decision, we thought it might be fun to look at how the dominoes will fall. We’ve enlisted the help of ESPN MLB experts Jeff Passan, David Schoenfield, Kiley McDaniel, Bradford Doolittle and Alden Gonzalez to map out the moves that will come once Ohtani picks his team.
For this activity, we’re going to focus on six teams: the Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Angels, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox and New York Mets. We’ll send Ohtani to the Dodgers, Jays and Angels in three separate scenarios and then go through how the other teams will pivot in free agency as a result of Ohtani’s choice.
If Ohtani signs with the … Dodgers
The Dodgers have prepared for the Ohtani sweepstakes for a couple of years now, sitting out last offseason’s free agent extravaganza and lowering their payroll down to about $158 million entering this offseason, nearly $100 million less than 2023’s total (which in turn was lower than where it was in 2021 and 2022). Only Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman are signed beyond 2025, giving the Dodgers the long-term flexibility to sign Ohtani — not to mention a fearsome threesome to lead the lineup. How about Ohtani, Betts and Freeman and hitting 1-2-3? Better yet, they can sign Ohtani and still have room to add to the rotation. It’s nice to be the Dodgers. As for the Ohtani runner-ups … — Schoenfield
Blue Jays’ next move: Aside from being extremely sad? Toronto went into this winter wanting to land a big fish, and Ohtani and Juan Soto were the two prized tunas in the ocean. If they want a bat, they could pivot to Cody Bellinger to fill the center-field gap left behind by Kevin Kiermaier‘s departure. If they want an arm, they can go head-to-head with the most moneyed teams in baseball and take a crack at Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Either way, the disappointment of going after the biggest stars available and missing would be palpable for a team that deeply desired a win to erase the disillusionment of another early postseason exit. — Passan
Cubs’ next move: Bring back Bellinger. The Cubs are looking for a big bat to add to the lineup and with Ohtani out of the mix, Bellinger is the next-best position player. He and Ohtani obviously aren’t one-for-one replacements at the plate, much less in overall quality, position or pitching ability, but the Cubs’ lineup has enough versatile pieces to make room for a top-notch player at a number of positions. The other main suitor for Bellinger was perceived to be the Yankees, who solved their outfield issues by trading for Soto (and Trent Grisham) Wednesday night. — McDaniel
Red Sox’s next move: Boston’s primary focus is the rotation — which Ohtani would have helped out starting in 2025 — but this is also an organization that has long valued production from the DH slot, from David Ortiz to J.D. Martinez to Justin Turner. Martinez and Turner are free agents, but let’s give the Red Sox Jorge Soler. With all their left-handed hitters, they need a righty masher, and Soler slugged .688 last season against southpaws and at 31 is younger than Martinez or Turner. They should keep their prospects in an improving farm system, so let’s have them dig into free agency to add rotation depth rather than a trade: Shota Imanaga (Kiley McDaniel’s No. 11 ranked free agent) and Seth Lugo, who pitched well as a starter with the San Diego Padres. That gives them eight solid rotation options: Rodriguez, Lugo, Bryan Bello, Chris Sale, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Nick Pivetta and Garrett Whitlock. — Schoenfield
Angels’ next move: Trade Mike Trout. Start over. Build around Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel and Logan O’Hoppe. Throw Jo Adell out there and let him sink or swim. Yes, I know what the words “Mike Trout is not getting traded, one hundred percent” mean. I would trade him anyway, to the Philadelphia Phillies most likely, since that might be the only place to which you could convince him to waive his no-trade clause. But if Ohtani goes, this era of Angels baseball needs to transition to the next, and it needs to be done carefully and with patience. — Doolittle
Mets’ next move: The Mets are a lot more likely to sign Yamamoto than they are to sign Ohtani, so for them this isn’t so much of a pivot as it is, seemingly, their No. 1 priority. They need starting pitching, and Yamamoto would make for a nice top-of-the-rotation pairing with Japanese countryman Kodai Senga. At 25, Yamamoto fits perfectly with their pursuit of long-term sustainability and their plan to seemingly be at their best in 2025 and 2026 as opposed to 2024. Mets owner Steve Cohen, who reportedly flew to Japan to meet with Yamamoto recently, has the money to outbid everybody for his services. And it’s a crowded field. — Gonzalez
If Ohtani signs with the … Blue Jays
At the start of the offseason, the Blue Jays were hardly the favorite to sign Ohtani. One betting site had them tied for the 12th lowest odds at the onset of the offseason (tied at 25-1 with the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals). But maybe it shouldn’t be a big surprise if they land him.
The Jays have a deep-pocketed owner in Rogers Communications, which could use Ohtani to headline its Blue Jays broadcasts across Canada. Plus, they need help on the field. While they’re one of just five teams to win at least 88 games each of the past three seasons, they’re a big, fat 0-4 in playoff games, scoring one run in their two losses to the Minnesota Twins. Meanwhile, the offense plummeted from top three in the AL in runs in 2020, ’21 and ’22 to eighth in 2023 and clearly lacked a left-handed hitter to go with Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer. With a veteran rotation, it’s also imperative for the Jays to go all-in right now while the rotation still projects as one of the best in the majors. — Schoenfield
Dodgers’ next move: The Dodgers are almost as interested in Yamamoto as they are in Ohtani, and one can make a strong case that Yamamoto — who will actually pitch next season — makes them better in 2024. This is clearly where they’ll pivot if they can’t get Ohtani. They’d love to sign them both, but getting just one would be looked upon as a massive success. The Dodgers want to add two to three starting pitchers this offseason, and Yamamoto is at the forefront of their plans. He’s going to command a contract in excess of $200 million, but he’s also just 25 years old. And they’ve had their eyes on him for a while. — Gonzalez
Cubs’ next move: I had the Cubs bringing back Bellinger in the first scenario, but you could argue that Matt Chapman fits them better as the big offensive addition to their lineup. With Christopher Morel being more of a corner utility type who can play a number of positions capably, adding a strong glove at third in Chapman makes team building a bit easier. There’s a potential desire for another veteran in center field before prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong — who was called up for the last month of the season — takes the job, to then have the vet move into a platoon/reserve role. At the higher end of the market, KBO outfielder Jung-hoo Lee could be a fit, with Michael A. Taylor or Adam Duvall as lower-end everyday options and Kiermaier and Harrison Bader in the higher upside bucket despite some durability issues. — McDaniel
Red Sox’s next move: I gave the Red Sox Soler and two starting pitchers last time. This time, I’m giving them Yamamoto. Check that list of starters above. OK, I’ll repeat it: Bello, Sale, Pivetta, Houck, Crawford, Whitlock. I don’t see an ace in there, that’s for sure. Yamamoto gives them the No. 1 starter they haven’t really had since Sale first injured his shoulder during the World Series season of 2018. –– Schoenfield
Angels’ next move: Well, since the Angels are adamant that they won’t trade Trout, then trade everyone else. The veterans that is. Fold in some future value and eat some cash to move Anthony Rendon. Find a taker for your good over-30 hitters like Brandon Drury and Taylor Ward. With or without Trout, the direction is the same: full reset. The Detroit Tigers did it with Miguel Cabrera still around and so the Angels can do it with Trout. — Doolittle
Mets’ next move: Yamamoto or bust. The Mets’ dalliance with Ohtani was short-lived, and as much as they would’ve loved rostering him, their most acute need in 2024 and beyond is in a rotation decimated by trades and ineffectiveness. Getting Yamamoto won’t be easy. The New York Yankees want him. The Dodgers, especially if they don’t get Ohtani, will want him. Getting into a bidding war with the two marquee franchises in baseball isn’t anybody’s idea of a good time. For free agents, Ohtani going to Toronto is the best-case scenario, because it shortens the supply of top-end players in a market where all the high-dollar teams are primed to spend. — Passan
If Ohtani signs with the … Angels
Maybe Ohtani is comfortable in Anaheim. Maybe Ohtani looks at Neto and Schanuel and sees a brighter future. Maybe he appreciates the organization that let him do it his way in turning into a two-way superstar. Maybe he just doesn’t want to leave a stadium he loves to hit in (he’s hit 99 home runs at Angel Stadium in his career and 72 on the road). Maybe after all this, he simply ends up back with the Angels. — Schoenfield
Dodgers’ next move: The Dodgers don’t seem to have a ton of interest in Blake Snell, and if Yamamoto is off the board, their best chance at a high-impact starting pitcher could be through a trade. Enter Dylan Cease, who possesses electric stuff and comes with two years of control (as opposed to Tyler Glasnow and Corbin Burnes, who have only one). The Dodgers are the type of team that can help Cease recapture his dominance from 2022. And they have the trade assets to beat out the competition for his services. — Gonzalez
Blue Jays’ next move: The market for Korean star Jung-hoo Lee is sprawling, and teams believe he could fetch a deal in excess of the five years and $90 million Boston gave Masataka Yoshida last year. The fit with Toronto makes sense. Lee is a no-doubt center fielder. He gets on base and could join Bichette and Guerrero atop the Blue Jays’ lineup. He doesn’t strike out much, though those numbers are likely to climb in his KBO-to-MLB transition. Lee wouldn’t necessarily be the kind of signing the Blue Jays envisioned coming into a winter in which the most talented player ever was a legitimate and realistic target, but bringing him onboard unquestionably would make Toronto a better team than it is right now. — Passan
Cubs’ next move: The Cubs’ rotation is solid and has some help coming in Cade Horton, but I could see a standout lefty in the bullpen putting them over the top, making the pen a strength of the team. Luckily for them, the top reliever on the market, Josh Hader, is a lefty and one of the best closers in baseball. Being able to shift Adbert Alzolay and Julian Merryweather into the eighth- and seventh-inning roles with Drew Smyly as a multirole left-handed option puts them in a better late-game strategic position for a potential playoff run. — McDaniel
Red Sox’s next move: The Red Sox could use help at second base and the outfield (especially if they use Masataka Yoshida at DH). Whit Merrifield can help at both positions, and while he doesn’t move the needle in a big way, he’s a useful utility player. And that still leaves plenty of room in the payroll to sign a starter. Jordan Montgomery might not be a No. 1, but one thing he has done since returning from Tommy John surgery is post: 30 starts in 2021, 32 in 2022 and 32 in 2023. The Red Sox had one starter make 30 starts over the past two seasons (Pivetta in 2022). When they last made the playoffs in 2021, they had three. Every team needs a couple of horses in the rotation and Montgomery fits. — Schoenfield
Mets’ next move: Sign Hader. I know the Mets are in on Yamamoto and they shouldn’t break off that pursuit. But new president of baseball operations David Stearns knows Hader well from their Milwaukee association and a two-headed back of the bullpen with Hader and Edwin Diaz would be epic. And it would make New York a bear to overcome in a playoff context. The Mets need to be targeted with their free agency splashes. Winning the Ohtani pursuit would have fit that objective, as would a successful wooing of Yamamoto, and Hader is another one of the few real impact free agents in this market. Those are the players the Mets should be all in on pursuing. — Doolittle
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Sports
First impressions from the Athletics’ new home opener
Published
3 hours agoon
April 4, 2025By
admin
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Tim KeownApr 3, 2025, 12:45 PM ET
Close- Senior Writer for ESPN The Magazine
- Columnist for ESPN.com
- Author of five books (3 NYT best-sellers)
A local television news crew was stationed outside the Sawyer Hotel in downtown Sacramento on Sunday night, ready to catch every nuance of the magical moment the bleary-eyed Chicago Cubs stepped off their bus to enter the lobby. This was the first time a major league baseball team had arrived in Sacramento to play a legally sanctioned regular-season game, and no story was too small. If you ever wondered what Ian Happ looks like walking toward a hotel and being surprised by the presence of a camera and a reporter, CBS-13 was the channel for you.
“That was different,” Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd said. “But it’s the first time a big league team has come to Sacramento, and they’re excited. Baseball’s that cool thing that brings everyone together.”
It was quite a week for Sacramento — more specifically, West Sacramento, the place with the street signs declaring it “The Baseball Side of the River.” It got to host the first three games of the Athletics’ expected three-season interregnum between Oakland and Las Vegas, and it got to call a big league team its own, even if the team has decided to declare itself simply the Athletics, a geographically nonspecific generic version of a Major League Baseball team.
It’s tough to explain the vibe at Sutter Health Park for the first series. It looked like big league baseball and sounded like big league baseball; it just didn’t feel like big league baseball. The crowds were mostly sedate, maybe because there’s room for only about 14,000 fans, and maybe because the Athletics were outscored 35-9 over the course of the three games, the first and third of which could have been stopped for humanitarian reasons.
This is a team that is supposed to be better this season, and three games shouldn’t change that expectation. It spent some money nobody knew it had on a free agent contract for Luis Severino and extensions for Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler, moves that assured a payroll high enough to abide by the revenue-sharing rules of the collective bargaining agreement, but moves that improved the team nonetheless. (You’ve got to spend money to make money is an adage that, for the first time, appealed to owner John Fisher.) The A’s have a universally respected manager in Mark Kotsay, several promising young players from recent drafts and the confidence that came from playing really good baseball over last season’s second half. There is a creeping suspicion that they could be building something that could make West Sacramento proud.
It’s a long, maybe even interminable season that will contain every iteration of peak and valley. Three games can end up being the equivalent of one breath over the course of a lifetime. But still, it’s impossible to deny the Athletics brought back a lot of their old classics for their Sacramento debut: They walked 10 batters in Monday night’s home opener; they kicked the ball around enough for four unearned runs in three games; they walked seven more Wednesday afternoon. The crowds were mostly quiet; the numerous Cubs fans were noisy until it felt mean, but the A’s fans, when they found something cheer-worthy, reacted as if they were cheering for someone else’s kid at a piano recital. As first impressions go, it could have been better.
The A’s players, in their defense, are going through an adjustment period. When I asked closer Mason Miller how he likes Sacramento, he starts counting on his fingers and says, “I’ve literally spent five nights here.” They’re young, wealthy and accustomed to living in a new place every season as they progress through the minor leagues, and they’re trying to view their new home as an opportunity to bond over experiencing something together for the first time.
“We’re all new here,” rookie second baseman Max Muncy says, “so even though I’m a rookie, I can earn some cred if I find a good restaurant and let everyone know.” I mention the toughest reservation in town, a Michelin-starred, fixed-price restaurant less than 2 miles away.
“That sounds like a two-month wait,” he says.
“Not if you tell them who you are,” I joke.
“Yeah, I can’t imagine doing that,” he says. “Besides, if I say, ‘Max Muncy,’ when I show up they’ll say, ‘Oh great, we got this one.'”
The A’s bigger concern is playing the next three seasons in a minor league ballpark and sharing it with a minor league team, the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. It’s kind of like a senior rooming with a freshman; the senior has dibs on just about everything, but he still has to deal with the roommate. For the A’s, that means wondering how the field will hold up over the course of the 155 games it’ll wear this season, and figuring out how to cope with having a clubhouse beyond the outfield wall, disconnected from the dugout.
Severino made his first home start for the A’s on Tuesday night, and he had to tweak his routine to account for the new reality: Once he left the clubhouse, there was no going back. It was cold and windy, so he had to make sure his jacket made it to the dugout with him. The notes he likes to reference during the game had to be there, too. His usual practice of popping into the clubhouse to watch the game on television while his team hits (“It looks easier and more fun on TV,” he says with a laugh) is on hold for home starts for the foreseeable future. He had to sit there with his teammates whether he pitched well or not — on Tuesday: not — and know that every one of his emotions would be picked up by at least five cameras.
“You just have to stick it out,” Severino says. “You can’t have all the stuff you have in a normal stadium. When you go out there, you have to bring everything with you. You have to try to stay warm and find out a different routine. It’s not the same, but the thing is, it doesn’t matter because it’s happening, and we need to get used to it. Just treat it like spring training, because it feels like spring training.”
Players coming off the bench to pinch-hit or play defense have nowhere to get loose. In any other park, they’d jump into the cage behind the dugout and take some swings or stretch out and run a few sprints. Here, they have to do whatever they can do within the confines of the dugout. “Just do some arm circles and maybe run in place,” Cubs infielder Jon Berti says. “Make it old-school.”
Just one of the three games sold out, an unexpected development after months of civic backslapping and grand proclamations about Sacramento cementing its status as a major league city. Tickets for Wednesday’s game, which drew 9,342 fans, were selling on the secondary market for $20 about 30 minutes before first pitch. The A’s have the highest median ticket prices — $181 — in baseball, according to data compiled by the ticket app Gametime. The idea was to employ the time-honored scarcity=demand concept to seize maximum profits from minimal opportunities, but one sellout — the opener, which also included roughly 2,000 comped tickets — in the first three games shows the A’s remain capable of straining even the most fundamental economic concepts.
It’s probably not fair to judge Sacramento’s worth as a baseball town based on its willingness to support a team that won’t be identified by the city’s name during its time here. And it’s definitely not fair to judge a region based on the number of fans eager to hand money to an owner who pulled the team out of Oakland after 57 years and is on his way to Las Vegas.
In the days after Kings/River Cats owner Vivek Ranadive joined with Fisher to bring the A’s to Sacramento, someone identified to me as “as Sacramento as it gets” sent a text that illustrates the conflict that lives within the Sacramento sports fan:
So many thoughts as I’ve been following this:
1) I hate it in that we are just bailing out Fisher
2) I hate that we are basically acting as Seattle a decade ago with regards to the Kings and poached the A’s away from Oakland. That’s an awful feeling I wish on no one
3) I am interested to see if this actually goes anywhere other than just bailing out Fisher for 3 years while he waits out whatever magic is gonna happen in LV
4) Reeeeeally wish Vivek read the room on this one
5) We could buy $30 lawn seats and catch a ball from Mike Trout or even better, [Austin] Slater, on a Wednesday night in Sac. That would be wild
The A’s are quick to point out that there weren’t many crowds of 10,000 on Tuesday nights in Oakland. (There was just one last year, during the final homestand of the season.) Still, Sacramento is a city attempting to use this three- to four-year run to audition for its own big league team. And if the A’s can’t sell out a minor league stadium in an area with established fans of the team, what does that foretell for their eventual move to Las Vegas, where the team is forecasting sellout crowds, including nearly 5,000 tourists per game — in a 33,000-seat stadium in an area with no connection to the A’s?
But that’s someone else’s problem, some other day. Three trips this week to Sutter Health — Sunday for the River Cats, Monday and Wednesday for the A’s — was a chance to watch big league baseball in a quaint, intimate ballpark. I thought it might be like venturing back in time, maybe what it felt like to watch a Philadelphia A’s game in 1907 at Columbia Park if Columbia Park had a state-of-the-art video screen that looks like an 86-inch television hanging from the wall of a studio apartment. This would be baseball back when games were just games and big league ballparks didn’t feel obligated to stock luxury suites with $300 cabernet and fist-sized prawns. Back to when every concession stand sold pretty much the same thing (at Sutter Health, each vendor has a set menu and one or two “specialty” items, like the pizza at Pizza & Pints) and fans could bring a chair or sit on the grass out in right field and dream of Mike Trout or Austin Slater.
Its charms are undeniable, but sustainable? The workers in the ballpark are all genial and helpful, thrilled with having major league baseball in their humble yard, but maybe we should check back in August. At the River Cats’ game Sunday, I spoke with an employee working in the team store who laid out the process of turning it from a River Cats’ store to an Athletics’ store over the course of roughly 24 hours. Starting at 5 p.m. Sunday, three overlapping shifts worked through the night and well into Monday, folding and packing and hauling out all the minor league gear, storing it somewhere she isn’t privy to, while hauling in all the big league gear, unpacking it, unfolding it and displaying it nicely enough that someone might feel compelled to forfeit $134.99 for an authentic JJ Bleday jersey.
As she detailed the process, and the time constraints, knowing this River Cats-to-A’s and vice versa conga will take place roughly every 10 days to two weeks over the next six months, I was beginning to feel stressed just looking at every cap, sock, T-shirt, bobblehead, Dinger the mascot doll and performance men’s half-zip pullover sweatshirt that awaited their attention.
“Will it get done?” I asked her.
She laughed.
“I guess it has to,” she said, “but I’m off tomorrow.”
And poof, just as there was no sign of the A’s on Sunday, there was no sign of the River Cats on Monday. Everything brick red and gold was replaced by something kelly green and gold. Even the sign proclaiming Sacramento’s Triple-A championships was replaced by one proclaiming the A’s nine World Series wins, five in Philadelphia and four in Oakland. But, like everything else involving the 2025 Athletics, there is no geographic designation. As the A’s know better than most, you are where you are until you’re where you want to be.
Sports
What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB’s hottest trend
Published
9 hours agoon
April 3, 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.
Sports
St. Pete to spend $22.5M to fix Tropicana Field
Published
9 hours agoon
April 3, 2025By
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Associated Press
Apr 3, 2025, 12:48 PM ET
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The once and possibly future home of the Tampa Bay Rays will get a new roof to replace the one shredded by Hurricane Milton with the goal of having the ballpark ready for the 2026 season, city officials decided in a vote Thursday.
The St. Petersburg City Council voted 7-1 to approve $22.5 million to begin the repairs at Tropicana Field, which will start with a membrane roof that must be in place before other work can continue. Although the Rays pulled out of a planned $1.3 billion new stadium deal, the city is still contractually obligated to fix the Trop.
“We are legally bound by an agreement. The agreement requires us to fix the stadium,” said council member Lissett Hanewicz, who is an attorney. “We need to go forward with the roof repair so we can do the other repairs.”
The hurricane damage forced the Rays to play home games this season at Steinbrenner Field across the bay in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The Rays went 4-2 on their first homestand ever at an open-air ballpark, which seats around 11,000 fans.
Under the current agreement with the city, the Rays owe three more seasons at the Trop once it’s ready again for baseball, through 2028. It’s unclear if the Rays will maintain a long-term commitment to the city or look to Tampa or someplace else for a new stadium. Major League Baseball has said keeping the team in the Tampa Bay region is a priority. The Rays have played at the Trop since their inception in 1998.
The team said it would have a statement on the vote later Thursday.
The overall cost of Tropicana Field repairs is estimated at $56 million, said city architect Raul Quintana. After the roof, the work includes fixing the playing surface, ensuring audio and visual electronics are working, installing flooring and drywall, getting concession stands running and other issues.
“This is a very complex project. We feel like we’re in a good place,” Quintana said at the council meeting Thursday.
Under the proposed timeline, the roof installation will take about 10 months. The unique membrane system is fabricated in Germany and assembled in China, Quintana said, adding that officials are examining how President Donald Trump’s new tariffs might affect the cost.
The new roof, he added, will be able to withstand hurricane winds as high as 165 mph. Hurricane Milton, one of the strongest hurricanes ever in the Atlantic basin at one point, blasted ashore Oct. 9 south of Tampa Bay with Category 3 winds of about 125 mph.
Citing mounting costs, the Rays last month pulled out of a deal with the city and Pinellas County for a new $1.3 billion ballpark to be built near the Trop site. That was part of a broader $6.5 billion project known as the Historic Gas Plant district to bring housing, retail and restaurants, arts and a Black history museum to a once-thriving Black neighborhood razed for the original stadium.
The city council plans to vote on additional Trop repair costs over the next few months.
“This is our contractual obligation. I don’t like it more than anybody else. I’d much rather be spending that money on hurricane recovery and helping residents in the most affected neighborhoods,” council member Brandi Gabbard said. “These are the cards that we’re dealt.”
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