
MLB Power Rankings: Who are the top teams one week into the season?
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adminWe’re just one week into the 2025 MLB season — and what a ride it has been already.
Torpedo bats are taking baseball by storm. Both the Dodgers and Padres are undefeated, while another National League team with lofty expectations in the Braves are winless to start the season.
We’ve also seen both great individual performances — Aaron Judge‘s three-homer game over the weekend; Mookie Betts‘ walk-off three-run blast; MacKenzie Gore‘s 13-strikeout Opening Day performance — and not so great ones — Rafael Devers‘ historic strikeout streak — across the league.
Is your favorite team off to a dominant start — and more importantly, will it last? Or are you hoping the first week’s returns aren’t a glimpse of the future?
Our expert panel has combined to rank every team based on a combination of what we’ve seen so far and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB experts David Schoenfield, Alden Gonzalez and Buster Olney to weigh in with an observation for all 30 teams.
Record: 8-0
Previous ranking: 1
The Dodgers have played eight games this season. Either Freddie Freeman or Mookie Betts — or, in two instances, both — have been absent for six of them. And yet it hasn’t really mattered. The Dodgers’ offense has hummed right along.
Betts has found some surprising home run power since sitting out the Japan series because of a debilitating illness that prompted him to shed nearly 20 pounds; Tommy Edman has continued to be a crucial part of the lineup, no matter where he hits; and the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez, Will Smith and Michael Conforto have shown just how deep this offense can be, even when it is without one or two of its three best players. — Gonzalez
Record: 4-1
Previous ranking: 3
Cristopher Sanchez was one of the most talked about pitchers of spring training, as he added even more velocity to a sinker that already had more velocity in 2024 than in 2023. His first start backed up what everyone saw in the Grapefruit League as he gave up one run in 5⅓ innings with seven strikeouts in a no-decision against the Rockies. His sinker averaged 96.5 mph — up from 94.5 mph in 2024. The sinker isn’t going to induce a lot of whiffs, but if Sanchez can improve the batting average against it (.345 last season), he could have a big season in store. — Schoenfield
Record: 7-0
Previous ranking: 10
Jackson Merrill, the Padres’ 21-year-old budding superstar, signed a nine-year extension Wednesday morning that guarantees him at least $135 million. Later in the day, he crushed his second home run in a 5-2 win over the Guardians, pushing the Padres to a 7-0 start — the longest season-opening winning streak in franchise history. A continuation of this early surge will hinge largely on their superstars, a list that includes Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Luis Arraez, Dylan Cease and Yu Darvish. But Merrill is squarely in that group, too. — Gonzalez
Record: 3-2
Previous ranking: 7
To put Judge’s start into perspective: At the outset of 2024 — what turned out to be one of the greatest seasons ever for a right-handed hitter — it took Judge 19 games to reach 11 RBIs. This season, it took him three games, in what was the best start to any season in his career. Judge began 4-for-6 with three homers against left-handers, and with runners on base, he started 5-for-9 with a walk. A big question coming into this season was how much Judge would be affected by the departure of Juan Soto from the No. 2 spot, and in a very small sample, the initial answer is: not at all. — Olney
Record: 4-2
Previous ranking: 5
Last year, Eugenio Suarez slashed just .196/.279/.312 through the first three months. It wasn’t until July that he really got going. His slump coincided with that of Corbin Carroll. The D-backs’ offense languished until the pair got going. So if there’s one major sign of encouragement that can be gleaned from this first week, it’s that Suarez clearly isn’t waiting around this year. The D-backs’ third baseman has already homered five times and driven in 11 runs while putting up a 1.312 OPS through his first six games. And given the hot starts of the Dodgers, Padres and Giants in the NL West, Suarez’s hot start has been crucial. — Gonzalez
Record: 5-2
Previous ranking: 8
Jacob deGrom pitched only 10 innings against major league competition in spring training and gave up five runs and two home runs, so nobody knew quite what to expect in his 2025 debut, but he delivered five scoreless innings against the Red Sox, giving up two hits with five strikeouts. Though it wasn’t quite vintage deGrom, he averaged 96.7 mph with his four-seamer while relying more on his slider and changeup than he traditionally has (he threw 29 sliders and 11 changeups out of 73 pitches), but it worked. The Red Sox went 1-for-11 with six strikeouts against those two pitches. — Schoenfield
Record: 3-3
Previous ranking: 6
Baltimore is going to hit, especially once Gunnar Henderson returns to the lineup and joins a rejuvenated Adley Rutschman and the powerful Tyler O’Neill. The barometer all season for the Orioles could be the performance of their starting pitchers, and whether they can limit opponents and also assume enough innings to take pressure off what could be a good bullpen. In the first pass through the rotation this season, Baltimore’s starters combined for a 6.26 ERA, which ranks 28th in the majors. Zach Eflin had a good first outing though, giving up two runs over six innings. — Olney
Record: 3-3
Previous ranking: 4
It has been a rough start for the Mets’ offense, which scored only 17 runs in the first five games — 10 of those coming in one game against the Marlins. Juan Soto’s start has been fine, homering in a 3-1 victory over the Astros in the second game of the season. He’s also taking his walks, no surprise there. He did strike out to end the season opener, representing the go-ahead run with two runners on base in a 3-1 loss, whiffing on a nasty 3-2 slider from Josh Hader. Mets fans will be ready to give him a loud ovation for the home opener Friday. — Schoenfield
Record: 4-2
Previous ranking: 16
Rival managers in the AL East talked up the Rays in spring training, but as always with Tampa Bay, the team operates with a small margin for error, and this is why Shane Baz‘s first start of the season was such a big deal. At a time when the Rays are without Shane McClanahan because of a triceps injury, Baz — a former first-round pick — threw six scoreless innings against the Pirates, striking out 10 without issuing a walk. The first time through Tampa Bay’s rotation, every Rays starter threw at least five innings, with the starters giving up only four earned runs in 29 innings. — Olney
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 11
Spencer Arrighetti‘s first start might be a sign of great things to come. He gave up only one hit and one run in six innings in a win over the Mets. As a rookie last season, Arrighetti struggled in the first half (5.63 ERA, 1.60 WHIP), but the Astros stuck with him, and he came on strong with a 3.18 ERA and 1.17 WHIP over his final 11 starts. His sweeper and curveball were big weapons as a rookie, so the key will be fastball command — and he had it against the Mets, who went 0-for-10 with three K’s against his four-seamer. — Schoenfield
Record: 0-7
Previous ranking: 2
Everyone knew a season-opening road trip to San Diego and Los Angeles was going to be a tough one, especially with no Spencer Strider and no Ronald Acuña Jr., but the Braves stumbled their way to seven losses in a row to begin the season. Their nine runs in the first six games is tied for the fourth-fewest runs scored through a team’s first six games in the wild-card era (since 1995). The .137 average was also fourth lowest in that span. Oh, and along the way, Jurickson Profar was suspended for 80 games for a PED violation. — Schoenfield
Record: 5-1
Previous ranking: 22
The Giants, under new direction with Buster Posey, blitzed through spring training with a 21-6 record and drew praise from scouts who noted how sharp they looked. That has carried over into games that matter. Coming off a sweep in Houston, the Giants are 5-1, somehow keeping pace with the Dodgers and Padres in the NL West. A few of their key guys haven’t fully clicked yet — though Heliot Ramos surely has — but collectively they have an OPS of .941 with runners in scoring position. And their relievers have combined for a 1.74 ERA. — Gonzalez
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 9
Devers’ struggles in his first full week as a designated hitter are front and center for the Red Sox, which is understandable, given Boston’s investment in a star who thought he was the franchise’s third baseman. But Devers’ play has overshadowed the slow starts of others on the team, including Alex Bregman, who didn’t score or drive in a run in his first five games with the Red Sox; Walker Buehler, who gave up four runs and seven hits over 4⅓ innings in his first start; and first baseman Triston Casas, who had one hit (and no extra-base hits) in the first week of the season. — Olney
Record: 5-4
Previous ranking: 16
Justin Steele has acted as a steadying presence in the Cubs’ rotation over the past three years, winning 25 games, posting a 3.10 ERA and accumulating 427 innings. But the early part of this season has been a struggle. Through three starts, Steele leads the majors in hits (18), earned runs (12) and homers allowed (five). But that’s not entirely fair. He began his season before almost everyone else, on March 18 in Japan. None of his three starts — against the Dodgers, D-backs and A’s — have been terrible. It’s just that none of them have been all that good, either. — Gonzalez
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 11
With the team inhabiting a league that has strong lineups like that of the Yankees, Rangers and Orioles, Kansas City’s front office worked in the offseason to improve its offense. The Royals added Jonathan India to be their leadoff hitter, and just before the start of the season, traded for right-handed-hitting Mark Canha to help balance what appeared to be a left-handed heavy lineup.
In the first week of the season, the results are mixed: India is getting on base, but Hunter Renfroe, MJ Melendez and others manning the outfield have started slowly. So far, the Royals’ outfielders have a wRC+ that ranks in the bottom half of the majors. In a related note: Jac Caglianone, who showed big power in spring training, is starting this season at Double-A. — Olney
Record: 3-4
Previous ranking: 12
The Mariners scored only 15 runs in starting the season 2-4 while hitting .166 and getting five or fewer hits in five of the games. Here’s how bad things have been: Of those 15 runs, only two came on a non-home run RBI hit. They had two sacrifice flies, an RBI groundout, a run on an error and nine runs via the home run. The Mariners play 13 of their first 16 games at home, so they better figure it out, but it already looks like 2024, when they just hit .214/.307/.358 at home (only the White Sox had a lower OPS at home). — Schoenfield
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 18
With Parker Meadows out indefinitely because of a nerve issue, Matt Vierling on the injured list because of a rotator cuff injury and Gleyber Torres out because of an oblique problem, scoring runs will be a challenge on many days for the Tigers. The emergence of Spencer Torkelson has been a big help early, after Torkelson worked extensively in the offseason on his hitting mechanics. Torkelson had seven hits, including a home run, in his first 18 at-bats, plus five walks. This is a team with an opportunity for standouts to emerge in the everyday lineup, from Manuel Margot to Zach McKinstry. — Olney
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 20
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Elly De La Cruz was a popular MVP pick at the start of the season, and it’s already clear why. Through his first six games, we’ve seen him turn in an impressive sliding catch in foul territory, produce 11 batted balls hit harder than 95 mph, steal two bases and launch four homers — including two Monday night, while debuting his torpedo bat.
“Elly is really good at baseball,” new Reds starting pitcher Brady Singer said afterward. He sure is. And he’s just starting to show it. — Gonzalez
Record: 4-2
Previous ranking: 25
Nolan Arenado spent all offseason thinking he was probably going to be traded. Then he wasn’t. Then he showed up to Busch Stadium on Opening Day wearing a Cardinals uniform, homered in the eighth inning and came out to a curtain call. Since then, Arenado has looked a lot like the guy who generated MVP votes in 2022, not the one who struggled in the two seasons thereafter, slashing .391/.500/.609 while turning in some solid defensive plays. At some point, he’ll be elsewhere — unless the Cardinals surprise us all and keep on winning. — Gonzalez
Record: 5-2
Previous ranking: 20
The question of whether the Blue Jays and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will agree to a long-term deal has dominated Toronto’s spring, but shortstop Bo Bichette is in a similar situation as Guerrero: Bichette is eligible for free agency at season’s end, and has a ton riding on his 2025 production. So far, so good. Bichette came out of the gate with a league-high nine hits. If Bichette plays well in the first half of the season, he’ll have value for the Jays no matter the direction of the team — if Toronto decides to make trades in July and reload for the future, there would be a market for Bichette (hello, Atlanta?), and if it wants to retain homegrown anchors, it could take a run to sign him to a long-term deal. — Olney
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 19
Cleveland did this offseason what it has had to do so often — proactively manage its payroll. This is part of the reason why the Guardians shed Andres Gimenez and Myles Straw in separate deals with the Blue Jays, and why they moved Josh Naylor to the Diamondbacks. The trade of Naylor left rival evaluators wondering who, if anyone, would be able to make up for the loss of the first baseman’s production. Early on, DH Kyle Manzardo — acquired from Tampa Bay two seasons ago — is getting a chance to be that guy. He has done some damage, with four extra-base hits, three walks and three strikeouts to start the season. — Olney
Record: 4-2
Previous ranking: 27
One of the more interesting Opening Day roster decisions for any team was the Angels promoting reliever Ryan Johnson even though he never pitched in the minor leagues after getting drafted in the second round last year out of Dallas Baptist. Johnson’s debut was a disaster, as he gave up five runs and two home runs in the season opener, but in his next two outings he was pressed into service in extra innings and picked up a save and a win. Johnson is a 6-foot-6 right-hander with a funky delivery who dominated as a starter at Dallas Baptist (2.21 ERA, 151 K’s in 106 innings). He touched 100 mph in college but has averaged 94.2 mph on his sinker with the Angels, using a cutter that he has thrown 55% of the time as his primary pitch. — Schoenfield
Record: 2-5
Previous ranking: 23
The initial returns are Sutter Health Park might be a big test for A’s pitchers. After holding the Mariners to eight runs in splitting a four-game series in Seattle, the A’s gave up 25 runs in their first two games in their new home park. To be fair, the wind was blowing out in both of the games. But the game-time temperatures were also just 52 and 55 degrees — much cooler than it will be during the summer.
“I think it’s still too early to tell,” Brent Rooker said. “There have been guys who have hit some balls good, and it’s been windy. We’re going to need several more games before we can really tell how it’s playing. There’s been a lot of offense. Where that credit lies, I’m not really sure.” — Schoenfield
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 15
On Tuesday night, Chad Patrick, Jared Koenig, Abner Uribe, Joel Payamps and Trevor Megill took the mound at American Family Field in Milwaukee and combined to shut out the Royals. It was a welcomed sight. For the previous four games, a Brewers pitching staff that had been severely compromised by injury, with three starting pitchers added to the injured list last month alone, was suffering from a case of whiplash. The pitchers gave up a whopping 45 runs in 33 innings, including 20 in one game against the torpedo-bat-swinging Yankees. Opposing batters compiled 17 home runs against the Brewers. — Gonzalez
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 17
The constant refrain around the Twins in recent years has been that the team has potential if it can consistently field Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis, a trio of players who’ve had difficulty staying healthy. Lewis again got hurt late in spring training, pulling a hamstring, and while Correa and Buxton have been on the field, both had a rough first week. The pair combined to go 6-for-42 with three extra-base hits, three RBIs and nine strikeouts — though went 4-for-8 with a home run and a double in Wednesday’s win. Not surprisingly, the Twins are slow out of the starting gate, with two wins in their first six games. — Olney
Record: 4-3
Previous ranking: 29
The cardiac Marlins are back. Remember 2023, when they went 33-14 in one-run games, 7-3 in extra-inning games and had nine walk-off wins on their way to a surprising wild-card berth? Well, the Marlins had three walk-off wins in their opening series against Pittsburgh, rallying from a 4-2 deficit in the opener, winning 5-4 in 12 innings and then 3-2. Some shoddy Pirates defense certainly helped, but Kyle Stowers and Dane Myers delivered the walk-off hits with the other winning run coming on a wild pitch. For a team many predicted to lose 100 games, it at least has been a fun start. — Schoenfield
Record: 1-5
Previous ranking: 26
The Nationals received two strong performances on their first trip through the rotation. Gore fanned 13 Phillies in a brilliant Opening Day start, giving up only one hit and no runs in six innings. He became just the ninth pitcher with at least 13 strikeouts in a team’s first game (Randy Johnson did it twice, both times with 14). But it was not an Opening Day record for a Washington pitcher: Camilo Pascual of the Senators fanned a record 15 in 1960. Mitchell Parker then tossed 6⅓ scoreless innings to beat the Phillies. He’s coming off a rookie season in which he went 7-10 with a 4.29 ERA. — Schoenfield
Record: 2-5
Previous ranking: 24
Paul Skenes was profiled alongside his famous girlfriend, Livvy Dunne, in GQ on Wednesday morning, then he went about dominating the Rays, allowing three baserunners and an unearned run in seven innings to bring his ERA to 1.46. The Pirates absorbed the unfortunate news last month that fellow budding ace Jared Jones is nursing a UCL sprain, and though at this point it doesn’t seem as if surgery will be required, Jones will be reassessed Friday. Eventually, Skenes, Jones and Bubba Chandler will form a devastating rotation trio. For now, though, the Pirates will settle for employing the “it” pitcher in baseball. — Gonzalez
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 30
On the way to making ignominious history, the 2024 White Sox didn’t pick up their second win until the 11th game of the season. This year, they split their first four games, an early sign the White Sox are bound to be better. Andrew Benintendi, starting his 10th season on the roster, is among the most experienced White Sox players, and he’s off to a good start, with a couple of homers and six hits (.353 average) in his first five games. You’d assume that if anyone called the White Sox looking for outfield help, Chicago would be open to moving Benintendi. But he’s owed about $50 million over this season and the two that follow. — Olney
Record: 1-4
Previous ranking: 28
The Rockies’ propensity for strange is already showing itself. Case in point: Their starting pitchers have combined for a 1.61 ERA through their first five games, and yet they’ve won only once. So while German Marquez, Antonio Senzatela, Kyle Freeland and Ryan Feltner have combined to given up only five runs in 28 innings, Colorado’s bullpen has fashioned an ERA over 10.00. And its offense has combined for only a .184 batting average. — Gonzalez
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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.
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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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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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