Can USA Hockey get more elite players to go to the IIHF World Championship?
-
Ryan S. Clark
Less than an hour after the United States lost to Canada in overtime of the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game, Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin was asked about the growth of American hockey and what lies ahead.
“You know what I think it does? I think we’ve had a tough time with USA Hockey getting guys to play in the World Championships,” said Larkin, a five-time World Championships participant. “I think guys are at home watching this and I hope they are wanting a piece of this.
“They gotta go to the World Championships and prove themselves and play for their country. We gotta start winning that tournament. I think that’s where Canada, those guys go and they play.”
Larkin’s words have since sparked a discussion about one of the largest challenges facing the nation’s governing body for the sport as it tries to become the world’s strongest men’s hockey power. Getting there means having an investment that goes beyond marquee events such as the 4 Nations Face-Off or the Olympics, and it all starts with how players regard participation in the IIHF Men’s World Championship.
The leadership team at USA Hockey have heard or read about what Larkin said, as have his peers in the NHL. But a gap persists in getting all of those peers to buy in.
ESPN spoke to 10 sources, including players and management, about why it’s been a struggle for USA Hockey to get more top-level NHL players to participate at the World Championships. And while this year’s edition presents a potential path toward a player making a case for the Olympics roster next February, there are those who feel that shouldn’t be the only motivation to play for Team USA.
“We have to rebuild our culture that the tournament is important and it should be more important than it is for our players,” said Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who was Team USA’s GM for the 4 Nations Face-Off, and will also manage the 2026 Olympic team. “The excuses that I hear for guys not going over, they’re not good enough. We need guys to go over. We want to try to start winning more often than we do, and we need our best players to consider going over.
“I know there’s real-life situations. I know there’s injuries. I know there’s contracts. But some of the excuses I’ve heard? Quite honestly, they’re not good enough.”
THE AMERICAN HOCKEY LANDSCAPE has changed dramatically since when Guerin and John Vanbiesbrouck, who is the assistant executive director for hockey operations for USA Hockey, were in the NHL.
Neither of them were born when the U.S. won its second World Championship along with its first Olympic gold medal in 1960. They were youths when the “Miracle On Ice” team made up of amateur players beat the Soviet Union before winning America’s second hockey gold at the 1980 Olympics.
Initially, the annual World Championships tournament was limited to amateur players as well, but the IIHF allowed professionals to participate starting in 1977. The IIHF’s decision came in the wake of the Canada Cup, a six-team tournament featuring pro players that was held five times between 1976 and 1991.
Eventually, the Canada Cup was replaced by the World Cup of Hockey in 1996. The NHL then allowed its players to participate in the Olympics starting in 1998.
This created opportunities for players such as Guerin and Vanbiesbrouck to represent the U.S. throughout their professional careers. It also presented a contrast in terms of how rosters were constructed.
For example, Vanbiesbrouck represented the U.S. at the World Championships four times and was on two Canada Cup teams. He made the roster for both tournaments in 1991. The U.S. roster for the World Championships that year had 10 players younger than 23 while the Canada Cup team had only four players younger than 23.
While Guerin never played at the Worlds, he represented the U.S. at three Olympics and twice at the World Cup of Hockey. Guerin was part of the gold-medal winning team at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, and the silver-medal winning team at the 2002 Olympics. Team USA’s median age when Guerin played was 30.
“Our expectations have changed,” Vanbiesbrouck said. “Whenever somebody wears the jersey, there’s a certain expectation. There’s an element of national pride to wear a jersey, to honor the flag and honor those people who came before you. It’s a great element in our game.”
One item that helped with elevating those expectations was the creation of the United States National Team Development Program in 1996. The NTDP became an incubator for the nation’s premier U18 and U17 male players.
Prior to the NTDP, the U.S. had medaled only twice — with a pair of bronze-place finishes — at the IIHF U20 World Junior Championships. The NTDP has since played an instrumental role in the U.S. establishing itself as a WJC powerhouse. Team USA has captured seven gold medals since 2010 and won its second consecutive gold earlier this year.
1:02
USA wins world junior hockey title on Teddy Stiga’s golden goal
Teddy Stiga nets the winning goal in overtime as the United States tops Finland to win the world junior hockey championship for the second year in a row.
Between the NTDP producing 98 first-round picks and the success at the World Juniors, it created the hypothesis that USA Hockey should be able to easily recruit players to represent the nation. That much was evident after the 4 Nations Face-Off, and it’s part of why the U.S. is considered to be one of the front-runners for gold at the 2026 Olympics.
“A lot of guys went through the NTDP and even coming here for two weeks, it was the closest group I’ve been around,” Columbus Blue Jackets and Team USA defenseman Zach Werenski said after the 4 Nations Face-Off. “It was awesome being here for two weeks and it was so much fun being around these guys. Everyone bought in. I think that’s a testament to what USA Hockey is doing from younger ages on right now.
“We expect to win. We expect to be in gold medal games and to be in these positions against Canada and the best teams.”
Players like Larkin and Werenski have a different experience compared to those who came before them. Fewer international opportunities existed, because the NHL didn’t allow players to participate in the Olympics in 2018 or 2022, while there have been only two World Cups (2004, 2016) since the first one in 1996.
It left the World Championships as the primary consistent option that could come close to replicating those best-on-best tournaments. But even as the demand for international hockey grows, there remains a disconnect when it comes to U.S. players and the World Championships.
The timing of the World Championships could be a factor. This year’s tournament runs from May 9 through May 25, which is simultaneous to the second round and conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
This limits the player pool to those whose teams didn’t qualify for the playoffs, or who were eliminated in the first round.
“It’s the time of year when everyone’s really looking for a break, and to go for a month, give it your all and sacrifice? It’s a lot for players,” Vanbiesbrouck said. “Most of the guys in the NHL are family guys, which we can all appreciate. Another is with the hip injuries that are happening today, they need a whole summer to recuperate and there’s so many significant injuries now that take such a long time that we understand. But I think that’s a big factor.”
WINNIPEG JETS DUO Connor Hellebuyck and Nikolaj Ehlers represent just how much differently the World Championships are viewed in the United States compared to the rest of the world.
Hellebuyck grew up in Commerce Township, Mich., which is a 45-minute drive from the NTDP’s headquarters. He grew up watching the Detroit Red Wings and went to games. He watched American-born players such as fellow goalie Jimmy Howard, who he idolized.
But he first learned about the tournament as a 21-year-old who had just finished his first AHL season in 2015, when he received a call from USA Hockey asking him to join the team for the World Championships.
“When USA Hockey called, it was cool. It was a cool experience,” Hellebuyck said. “The more I did it, the more I started to realize it is for the experience and it’s for the young guy trying to get better. It’s not for the veteran unless he wants to travel, unless he wants to see the world or he wants to play a little more hockey.”
American-born players like Hellebuyck often grow up associating hockey in May with the Stanley Cup playoffs. Major League Baseball, the NBA Finals and the PGA Championship, among many other sporting events, are also going on at that time. Having that many options plays into the lack of visibility.
Compare that to Ehlers. He grew up in Aalborg, Denmark where there was a pro hockey team, but nothing like the NHL. As a nation, Denmark has around 5,000 registered hockey players. But it hosted the World Championships for the first time in 2018, and had the eighth-highest total attendance in tournament history. Denmark will co-host this year’s tournament in May with Sweden.
In Europe, the World Championships have become a tentpole event within the European sporting landscape in nations such as Czechia, Finland, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, home of the IIHF’s headquarters. Last year’s tournament in Czechia set a new tournament total attendance record of 797,727 fans. Five of the 10 most attended tournaments have come since 2010, none of which were in North America.
The U.S has hosted the tournament three times — with the most recent coming in 1962, when it was hosted in Colorado Springs and Denver. Canada, which has won the tournament a record 28 times, has hosted the World Championships just once, back in 2008.
Vanbiesbrouck said there haven’t been any discussions throughout his time with USA Hockey about trying to host the event, adding that he would like to challenge the status quo and “be able to say that we could do this.”
Ehlers, who played in his first Worlds in 2016, said the tournament has such a reverence in Europe that fans will travel to support their respective homelands. But for nations such as Denmark, Ehlers said the Worlds provide them a chance to show they do belong.
“To be able to have had the amount of NHL players that we’ve had over years and the way that we’ve gone at The Olympics, they reached the quarterfinals at the last Olympics,” said Ehlers, who is one of 17 Danes to play in the NHL. “We’ve beaten Canada and Sweden and teams like that. We go out there to try to prove we are not a small hockey country even though we are in the big picture.”
Or as Guerin said: “Because it matters to them. It’s important and it needs to be important for us.”
WHAT CAN USA HOCKEY do to get more NHL players to play at the Worlds?
Guerin said that the organization has developed a program allowing players to bring their family members and/or friends to Europe for the tournament. Vanbiesbrouck added that it’s something they’ve evolved after observing what Canada had with its program.
Utah Hockey Club coach Andre Tourigny — Canada’s coach for the past two cycles — said Hockey Canada created a family environment. He said bringing families over for the tournament means there’s a chance for them to share what it means to be in a different part of the world. But when it’s time to play, those individual families then create their own community despite being thousands of miles away from home.
“Admittedly, USA Hockey has had to do a better job of getting the people and bringing them over with a certain standard and they’ve done that,” Guerin said. “The last little while they’ve stepped up to the plate and made it a better experience for the players, their wives and their families. It can just be a great opportunity to play for your country. Hopefully, we start to see more guys feel the importance of that tournament.”
Wild forward Matt Boldy said that Guerin and others within USA Hockey have done a strong job of emphasizing why the World Championships matter, and how they used it in their process for creating Team USA’s 4 Nations Face-Off roster.
Boldy said he viewed going to the World Championships as a chance to show how he could be counted upon playing in a different system in international play. Especially when he saw other nations bring more of their best players to the tournament.
A two-time World Championship team member, Boldy got a chance to learn from Johnny Gaudreau and Brock Nelson, two players he grew up watching. While Boldy learned from them on the ice, he also got a chance to know them as people, which he said helped when it came to establishing a dynamic with teammates.
“I think the more that we can get our USA guys there playing together, comfortable with each other … it just makes things easier so in tournaments like the 4 Nations, it makes that transition smoother,” Boldy said. “It’s a big tournament. Every country wants to win it including the U.S. If we can get our biggest guys there and everyone kind of spends that extra time together, it could mean a lot.”
Guerin and Vanbiesbrouck said that they have heard from the agents of American players who missed out on the 4 Nations Face-Off about wanting to be involved in the Olympics. Vanbiesbrouck said that the 4 Nations event also made older players realize that the 2026 Olympics might be their final opportunity to play for Team USA.
“It’s one of those things where if you want to be in one of those tournaments and participate, then, be a part of it,” Guerin said. “Don’t be a part of it when you want to be a part of it. A lot of the guys we’ve had have gone to the World Championships and done that. If you want to have a better shot of something like the 4 Nations and the Olympics, help us in other areas. We need it. It’s not just trying to win the 4 Nations or The Olympics.
“The World Championships go on every year and we want to try to win it. That’s the bottom line.”
Sports
‘It’s taken on a life of its own’: Inside the 48 hours torpedo bats launched into baseball lore
At 1:54 ET on Saturday afternoon, New York Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay lit the fuse on what will be remembered as either one of the most metamorphic conversations in baseball history or one of its strangest.
During spring training, someone in the organization had mentioned to Kay that the team’s analytics department had counseled players on where pitches tended to strike their bats, and with subsequent buy-in from some of the players, bats had been designed around that information. In the hours before the Yankees’ home game against the Brewers that day, Kay told the YES Network production staff about this, alerting them so they could look for an opportunity to highlight the equipment.
After the Yankees clubbed four homers in the first inning, a camera zoomed in on Jazz Chisholm Jr.‘s bat in the second inning. “You see the shape of Chisholm’s bat…” Kay said on air. “It’s got a big barrel on it,” Paul O’Neill responded, before Kay went on to describe the analysis behind the bat shaped like a torpedo.
Chisholm singled to left field, and after Anthony Volpe worked the count against former teammate Nestor Cortes to a full count, Volpe belted a home run to right field using the same kind of bat. A reporter watching the game texted Kay: Didn’t he hit the meat part of the bat you were talking about — just inside where the label normally is?
Yep, Kay responded. Within an hour of Kay’s commentary, the video of Chisholm’s bat and Kay’s exchange with O’Neill was posted on multiple platforms of social media, amplified over and over. What happened over the next 48 hours was what you get when you mix the power of social media and the desperation of a generation of beleaguered hitters. Batting averages are at a historic low, strikeout rates at a historic high, and on a sunny spring day in the Bronx, here were the Yankees blasting baseballs into the seats with what seemed to be a strangely shaped magic bat.
An oasis of offense had formed on the horizon, and hitters — from big leaguers to Little Leaguers, including at least one member of Congress — paddled toward it furiously. Acres of trees will be felled and shaped to feed the thirst for this new style of bats. Last weekend, one bat salesman asked his boss, “What the heck have we done?”
Jared Smith, CEO of bat-maker Victus, said, “I’ve been making bats for 15, 16 years. … This is the most talked-about thing in the industry since I started. And I hope we can make better-performing bats that work for players.”
According to Bobby Hillerich, the vice president of production at Hillerich & Bradsby, his company — which is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and makes Louisville Slugger bats — had produced 20 versions of the torpedo bat as of this past Saturday, and in less than a week, that number has tripled as players and teams continually call in their orders.
Even though Saturday marked its launch into the mainstream, this shape of bat has actually been around for a while. Hillerich & Bradsby had its first contact with a team about the style in 2021 and had nondisclosure agreements with four teams as the bat evolved; back then, it was referred to as the “bowling pin” bat. The Cubs’ Nico Hoerner was the first major leaguer to try it — and apparently wasn’t comfortable with it. Cody Bellinger tried it when he was with the Cubs before joining the Yankees during the offseason.
Before Atlanta took the field Sunday night, Braves catcher Drake Baldwin recalled trying one in the Arizona Fall League last year (noting that his first impression was that it “looked weird”). Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor used it in 2024, in a year in which he would finish second in the NL MVP voting; Lindor’s was a little different from Volpe’s version, with a cup hollowed out at the end of the bat. Giancarlo Stanton swung one throughout his playoff surge last fall, but no one in the media noticed, perhaps because of how the pitch-black color of Stanton’s bat camouflaged the shape.
Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli saw one in the Twins’ dugout during spring training and picked it up, his attention drawn to the unusual shape. “What the hell is this thing?” he asked, wondering aloud whether the design was legal. When he was assured it was, he put it back down.
Baldelli’s experience reflected the way hitters have used and assessed bats since the advent of baseball: They’ll pick up bats and see how they feel, their interest fueled by the specter of success. Tony Gwynn won eight batting titles, and many teammates and opposing hitters — Barry Bonds among them — asked whether they could inspect his bats. The torpedo bat’s arrival was simply the latest version of that long-held search for the optimal tool.
On Opening Day, eight teams had some version of the torpedo bat within their stock, according to one major league source. But with video of the Yankees’ home runs being hit off unusual bats saturating social media Saturday afternoon, the phone of Kevin Uhrhan, pro bat sales rep for Louisville Slugger, blew up with requests for torpedo bats. James Rowson, the hitting coach of the Yankees, began to get text inquiries — about 100, he later estimated. Everyone wanted to know about the bat; everyone wanted to get their own.
In San Diego, Braves players asked about the bats, and by Sunday morning, equipment manager Calvin Minasian called in the team’s order. By the middle of the week, all 30 teams had asked for the bats. “Every team started trying to get orders in,” Hillerich said. “We’re trying to scramble to get wood. And then it was: How fast can we get this to retail?”
Victus produces the bats Chisholm and Volpe are using and has made them available for retail. Three senior players, all in their 70s, stopped by the Victus store to ask about the torpedoes. A member of Congress who plays baseball reached out to Louisville Slugger.
The Cincinnati Reds contacted Hillerich & Bradsby, saying, “We need you in Cincinnati on Monday ASAP,” and soon after, Uhrhan and pro bat production manager Brian Hillerich, Bobby’s brother, made the 90-minute drive from the company’s factory in Louisville with test bats.
Reds star Elly De La Cruz tried a few, decided on a favorite and used it for a career performance that night.
“You can think in New York, maybe there was wind,” Bobby Hillerich said. “Elly hits two home runs and gets seven RBIs. That just took it to a whole new level.”
A few days after the Yankees’ explosion, Aaron Leanhardt, who had led New York’s effort to customize its bats as a minor league hitting coordinator before being hired by the Marlins as their field coordinator, was in the middle of a horseshoe of reporters, explaining the background. “There are a lot more cameras here today than I’m used to,” he said, laughing.
Stanton spoke with reporters about the simple concept behind the bat: build a design for where a hitter is most likely to make contact. “You wonder why no one has thought of it before, for sure,” Stanton said. “I didn’t know if it was, like, a rule-based thing of why they were shaped like that.”
Over and over, MLB officials assured those asking: Yes, the bats are legal and meet the sport’s equipment specifications. Trevor Megill, the Brewers’ closer, complained about the bats, calling them like “something used in slow-pitch softball,” but privately, baseball officials were thrilled by the possibility of seeing offense goosed, something they had been attempting through rule change in recent years.
“It’s all the rage right now, given what transpired over the weekend,” said Jeremy Zoll, assistant general manager of the Twins. “I’m sure more and more guys are going to experiment with it as a result, just to see if it’s something they like.”
That personal preference is a factor for which some front office types believe the mass orders of the bats don’t account: The Yankees’ recommendations to each hitter were based on months of past data of how that player tended to strike the ball. This was not about a one-size-fits all bat; it was about precise bat measurements that reflected an individual player’s swing.
“I had never heard of it. I’ve used the same bat for nine years, so I think I’ll stick with that,” White Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi said. “It’s pretty interesting. It makes sense. If it works for a guy, good for him. If it doesn’t, stick with what you got.”
As longtime player Eric Hosmer explained on the “Baseball Tonight” podcast, the process is a lot like what players can do in golf: look for clubs customized for a player’s particular swing. And, he added, hitting coaches might begin to think more about which bat might be most effective against particular pitchers. If a pitcher tends to throw inside, a torpedo bat could be more effective; if a pitcher is more effective outside, maybe a larger barrel would be more appropriate.
That’s the key, according to an agent representing a player who ordered a bat: “You need years of hitting data in the big leagues to dial it in and hopefully get a better result. He’s still tinkering with it; he may not even use it in a game. … I think of it like switching your irons in golf to blades: It will feel a little different and take some adjusting, and it may even change your swing subtly.”
Two days after the home run explosion, Boone said, “You’re just trying to just get what you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit. And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be — it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”
“I’m kind of starting to smile at it a little more … a lot of things that aren’t real.”
Said the player agent: “It’s not an aluminum bat with plutonium in it like everyone is making it out to be.”
Reliever Adam Ottavino watched this all play out, with his 15 years of experience. “It’s the Yankees and they scored a million runs in the first few games, and it’s cool to hate the Yankees and it’s cool to look for the bogeyman,” Ottavino said, “and that’s what some people are going to do, and [you] can’t really stop that. But there’s also a lot of misinformation and noneducation on it too.”
Major league baseball mostly evolves at a glacial pace. For example, the sport is well into the second century of complaints about the surface of the ball and the debate over financial disparity among teams. From time to time, however, baseball has its eclipses, moments that command full attention and inspire change. On a “Sunday Night Baseball” game on May 18, 2008, an umpire’s botched home run call at Yankee Stadium compelled MLB to implement the first instant replay. Buster Posey’s ankle was shattered in a home plate collision in May 2011, imperiling the career of the young star, and new rules about that type of play were rewritten.
The torpedo bat eruption could turn out to be transformative, a time when the industry became aware how a core piece of equipment has been taken for granted and aware that bats could be more precisely designed to augment the ability of each hitter. Or this could all turn out to be a wild overreaction to an outlier day of home runs against a pitching staff having a really bad day.
On Thursday, Cortes — who had been hammered for five homers over two innings in Yankee Stadium — shut out the Reds for six innings.
In Baltimore, Bregman, who had tried the torpedo bat earlier this week, reverted to his usual stock and had three hits against the Orioles, including a home run. Afterward, Bregman said, “It’s the hitter. Not the bat.”
This story was also reported by Jeff Passan, Jorge Castillo, Jesse Rogers and Kiley McDaniel.
A week has passed since torpedo bats burst onto the scene as the talk of the 2025 MLB season, and the hitting innovation is still buzzing through the industry.
We asked our MLB reporters to talk to players and coaches to see if they think the bowling pin-shaped bat trend is here to stay, how much it really helps hitters — and if they believe it should be allowed in the majors.
Here’s what those around baseball had to say about the trend taking the sport by storm.
When did you first hear about torpedo bats?
Andrew Benintendi, OF, Chicago White Sox: I had never heard of it. I’ve used the same bat for nine years so I think I’ll stick with that. 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.
Robert Van Scoyoc, hitting coach, Los Angeles Dodgers: I’ve heard about bat fitting. We do bat fitting and all that. I just haven’t heard about this specifically. When I first heard about [torpedo bats specifically] was when everyone else kind of knew about it.
Ryan O’Hearn, first baseman, Baltimore Orioles: (Orioles assistant GM and former NASA engineer) Sig Mejdal deserves credit. Sig has been on the torpedo bat for a long time. He’s been trying to get guys to experiment with it, use it. He’ll send them out, send us everybody. He sent some in the offseason. He sent me the traditional torpedo bat and then he sent me a special model that, based off of my batted ball data, would fit better. He’s been all over it. I think I first heard about it in maybe the end of ’23 from Sig. And then he made them available. I took BP with it. I was unsure because it does feel a little different. Not in a bad way, just different. I feel like I was hitting balls and kind of feeling the vibrations on the end, which I didn’t really like.
Dansby Swanson, SS, Chicago Cubs: This offseason. It’s just caught on. People have used it before. It’s not that new.
Adam Ottavino, veteran reliever: I noticed last year that there were some guys with different shaped bats. I think [Francisco] Lindor had one. And, honestly, I didn’t think too much of it because there’s always been a lot of tinkering with bat models since I’ve been in the big leagues. There’s so many bat models. Even like custom handles like big knobs. Some hockey puck knobs. And there’s like those triangular knobs. So I didn’t really think too much of it. I didn’t maybe understand what they were going for.
Nolan Schanuel, 1B, Los Angeles Angels: I heard about it in spring training this year. Chuckie Robinson had a bat. We kind of weren’t serious about it, you know? He pulled it out and we were like, “Uh, that’s kind of strange.” But the science behind it makes total sense. I didn’t really think about that from that standpoint at all until the science came up for it and said why it would benefit certain people’s swings.
[Robinson] never used it … I don’t know if he had it the year prior, but for some reason he had one. And we were just like, “That’s a weird-looking bat.” I didn’t think anything of it until come Opening Day, you see all these guys swinging it in the regular season.
Martin Maldonado, C, San Diego Padres: I don’t know anything about it other than what I read on Twitter.
Have you used a torpedo bat before and if not, are you planning to try it now? If so, how did it feel?
Max Muncy, 3B, Los Angeles Dodgers: It felt good. The swing felt good. But after the Dylan Lee at-bat (in which Muncy struck out in the sixth inning last Wednesday), I felt like the bat was causing me to be a little bit off-plane, a little bit in and out of the zone. My swings felt really, really good tonight but just a little bit off. So the last at-bat I decided just to go back to my regular bat.
Matt Shaw, 3B, Chicago Cubs: I’ve used it in batting practice. I wasn’t a big fan. The weight felt a little heavier. The ball feedback wasn’t as good. But we’ll see.
Swanson: It’s not the perfect product. There are so many nuances involved. I’ve committed to using it enough to get a good sample size. There is definitely validity in everything, but it just has its media craze right now.
Jed Hoyer, president of baseball operations, Chicago Cubs: I talked to [Swanson] a lot this winter about it. He was very open-minded. It’s a process. That’s why we wanted to have guys use them in spring training. The more the veteran guys do it, hopefully that has a carry-over effect.
Michael A. Taylor, OF, Chicago White Sox: I would love to try one. I’m sure everyone is trying to order one right now. It’s interesting. I’m not too educated on the science behind it, but it seems pretty straightforward. I tried the axe bat then the puck bat so the torpedo bat is the latest thing. I want to try it.
Byron Buxton, OF, Minnesota Twins: I haven’t tried it. Not going to try it either. I’ve been doing perfectly fine with my bats. No point in trying to switch it up now. People blowing up the Yankees about all the homers they hit. Same guys that hit homers are the same guys that hit homers last year. It’s not that big of a deal.
O’Hearn: I’ve used a torpedo bat for one major league at-bat. I struck out. And then I threw it in the trash. Didn’t even make contact. I’m weird, man. I just remember guys laughing at me, being like, you’re done with it already?
Salvador Perez, catcher, Kansas City Royals: No, but it’s interesting. I’m going to talk to Davy (Royals VP of major league team operations Jeff Davenport) about that. Are we going to put in some orders for that bat? I talked to Gary Sanchez yesterday. He used the bat yesterday. The first time that I saw that bat, I grabbed it. Big barrel. I think if it helps, why not? Why not just try it out and see what happens?”
Mark Canha, outfielder, Kansas City Royals: It wasn’t anything I was aware of during spring until that half of the first week. I’m using kind of a modified one right now. It’s torpedo-esque. It’s not as drastic. I didn’t even know what I was ordering. Pete Alonso told me to get that model. It’s great. And usually he knows a lot. He’s really likes stuff like that. So I kind of just trusted him, and it’s been working. I like it. But I do like that there’s more barrel, a little lower than I’m used to swinging. It feels a little different. It’s not as ringy when I get it closer to the label, which I like.
Schanuel: I mostly miss [the ball] on the inner side of the barrel, so if I miss the barrel, I get jammed the most. If I were to get a torpedo bat … I think it would help me out a lot, especially my bat path and seeing the ball deep. I’d be more than willing to try it yet.
Nicky Lopez, 2B, Los Angeles Angels: I gave it a little bit of a test run in spring training because that’s what everyone was kind of doing. But it takes a little bit of getting used to.
Your whole career you’ve been using a bat that you know, and you know where the sweet spot is, and it’s one kind of length. You have the specifications of it and you kind of feel where that barrel is, and now when you move that barrel down a little bit, you have to refine where that sweet spot is. It takes a little bit to get used to. I used it a little bit in BP and I’m going to continue to use it and just see where it’s at.
Nico Hoerner, 2B, Chicago Cubs: I’ve used it since mid-spring training. Every AB I’ve taken this year has been with some version of the reverse taper barrel (which is what the Cubs call the torpedo bat). Still in the process of figuring that out, but I like it. It’s not something I’m thinking of when I go to the plate. A misconception I’ve heard is guys are not changing what they do to fit the bat. It’s kind of the opposite.
What do you make of the way the topic has blown up across the sport?
Ottavino: I mean, listen, first of all, 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 boogeyman and that’s what some people are going to do and can’t really stop that. But there’s also a lot of misinformation and noneducation on it too.
I was in Boston this spring and there were a bunch of guys using those types of bats over there too. So, they’re all over the place. It’s not unique to this organization. Maybe it originated in [the Yankees clubhouse], but I mean, there’s no secrets in baseball. Everybody’s going to be using what they think’s going to give them the best result. So I don’t really make too much of people complaining about it, honestly.
Schanuel: I think it’ll help out, especially to boost offensive performances. I think it’s good for MLB itself. Fans would like to see it. Everyone loves homers. Everyone loves when guys get on base. I think it’ll help out a lot. I mean it’s just exciting talking about it.
Mark Leiter, reliever, New York Yankees: I wouldn’t say I’m surprised just because I think there’s a level of it’s something to talk about in a big market. I mean, just the fact that it’s within the rules and stuff, I just think it’s more surprising that it took this long for somebody to do this. Just because you know about customizing golf clubs and stuff like that. Like, it makes a lot of sense.
Buxton: Everyone is blowing up the Yankees about all the homers they hit. Same guys you see hit homers, are the same guys that hit homers last year. It’s not that big of a deal. It’s like when the sweeper came around. We were like, “What’s a sweeper?” We had never heard of sweepers. And now we’ve never heard of torpedo bats and now they pop.
Shaw: The Yankees hitting a bunch of home runs made it blow up. Aaron Judge not using the torpedo bat is funny to me. It blew up with the Yankees, but he doesn’t swing it. You can clearly see both sides. They might work, but the old bats work too. The difference might be very small.
Do you think it should be allowed in the sport to use torpedo bats?
Canha: Yes. I do feel like we need all the help we can get. These guys are throwing so hard now. But it’s not a cheat code. We’ll see how it plays out over a little bigger sample size.
Freddie Freeman, 1B, Los Angeles Dodgers: I do not look down on anybody. If it’s legal, you can do whatever you want. I swung the same bat for 16 years. I will not be changing to a torpedo bat. I’ve swung the same length, ounces, everything. If it works for the guys, go for it. I know some of our guys are getting them, so, we’ll see. I will not be swinging them.
Jake Cronenworth, 2B, San Diego Padres: [Torpedo bats] give everyone something to talk about. If any team hit 15 home runs, you’d be like, “What bats are they using? Are they legal?” And they are.
Are torpedo bats a trend based on this week’s buzz or something that is here to stay?
Lopez: I think so, yeah. I really do. I think this can be a good thing for a lot of hitters.
Van Scoyoc: I’m sure some guys will try it out. Someone gets hot, then you’ll probably see more guys going to it. I think it’s good. In pitching they have Trackman. In hitting we do, too. But we don’t capture the bat, which is essentially our same equipment. That’s why I think hitting is behind — because they just get more information that’s useful a lot faster.
O’Hearn: It’s kind of like the axe handle or puck knob. I think just because the Yankees went bananas for two games, it’s going to blow up. And I honestly felt bad for Sig when it went crazy because I was like, I don’t know if he was the first one on it, but I feel like he’s sitting around somewhere, like, ‘I wish the Orioles would’ve done this.’
Freeman: I promise you I have not read a thing about it. I only know there’s a torpedo bat and it looks kind of like the barrel’s shorter or lower down. That’s all I’ve got. Nor will I read into it. That’s just me. I’m not the right guy to ask those kind of questions. I swing the same bat every day.
Muncy: Baseball is not a one-size-fits-all sport, going from socks to batting gloves to shoes to pants. It’s not a one size fits all for anyone in this game. So, everyone swings different. Everyone likes their bat different. There’s some guys I think it could be a real benefit for, and there’s some guys it might be a detriment. I still don’t know where I’m at on that scale.
Hoerner: I think [it’s a trend]. There was the axe handle. A lot of guys with the Red Sox had success with that. Then in 2021, there was the big puck knob trend. You still see some of those. This is a little different when you’re changing where you impact the ball with. The jury is still out. I don’t look at that Yankees series and think it would have been a totally different series without the bats. It’s about marginal differences over the course of 600 ABs. That really matters.
Hoyer: This isn’t the kind of thing, one team did it and everyone copied. There were a number of teams on this. There is a lot of attention because of the size of the market and [the Yankees] scored 20. Guys were hitting in the cage with them last year. Pete [Crow-Armstrong] used it in a game last year in September (he flew out). It’s new, but it’s not like it started game two last weekend and everyone copied it quickly.
University Laboratory School
St. Frances Academy
Maryland
Committed
12/07/2024
Nixa High School
Mater Dei High School
Ohio State
Committed
07/29/2023
Nashville Christian School
American Heritage High School
Texas
Committed
06/17/2024
Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School
Grimsley High School
Tennessee
Committed
08/03/2024
Tupelo High School
Hattiesburg High School
LSU
Committed
03/19/2025
Reidsville High School
Oregon
Committed
11/30/2024
Georgetown Prep
Grayson High School
Mount Miguel High School
Archbishop Hoban High School
Legacy The School of Sport Sciences
Houston
Committed
05/27/2024
IMG Academy
Sierra Canyon High School
Bowdon High School
Lake Ridge High School
IMG Academy
Bishop Gorman High School
DeSoto High School
Mater Dei High School
Saint Paul’s Episcopal School
Miami Northwestern High School
Louisa County High School
Rancho Cucamonga High School
USC
Committed
12/13/2024
Gainesville High School
USC
Committed
07/27/2024
St. Frances Academy
Jackson High School
Hartfield Academy
Pine View High School
Catholic High School
Ohio State
Committed
03/31/2025
Fremont High School
Lone Star High School
Mater Dei High School
Oregon
Committed
08/12/2024
Sprayberry High School
Alabama
Committed
03/26/2025
Tavares High School
Florida
Committed
03/06/2025
Collins Hill High School
IMG Academy
Saint Thomas Aquinas High School
The Bolles School
Ohio State
Committed
04/03/2025
North Crowley High School
Newbury Park High School
IMG Academy
Georgia
Committed
01/30/2025
Vero Beach Senior High School
Benjamin Russell High School
Booker High School
Folsom High School
South Garner High School
Knoxville Catholic High School
Tennessee
Committed
10/31/2024
Picayune Memorial High School
Orange Lutheran High School
Buford High School
Central Catholic High School
Illinois
Committed
02/01/2025
Myers Park High School
Morton High School
Douglas County High School
Texas A&M
Committed
10/27/2024
Great Bend High School
Pensacola Catholic High School
Cartersville High School
Georgia
Committed
03/15/2025
Oaks Christian High School
Destrehan High School
LSU
Committed
03/22/2025
Gadsden High School
Alabama
Committed
12/25/2024
Webb School Of Knoxville
Cumberland Valley High School
Notre Dame
Committed
01/30/2025
Jackson High School
Loyola Blakefield High School
Jesuit High School
Florida
Committed
06/01/2024
Trinity Episcopal School
Sierra Canyon High School
St. Christopher’s School
Mater Dei High School
USC
Committed
04/01/2025
Byron P. Steele II High School
Texas A&M
Committed
03/22/2025
Providence Day School
Douglas County High School
Texas A&M
Committed
10/27/2024
Orange Lutheran High School
Loyola High School
USC
Committed
10/29/2023
Harrisburg High School
Penn State
Committed
07/27/2024
Forney High School
Cross County High School
Langston Hughes High School
Carrollton High School
Cardinal Mooney High School
East Ascension High School
LSU
Committed
02/13/2025
Desert Edge High School
Gonzaga College High School
Texas High School
Oregon
Committed
07/27/2024
Willamette High School
Oregon
Committed
09/23/2023
Valencia High School
Gainesville High School
Alabama
Committed
02/21/2025
Edna Karr High School
LSU
Committed
06/23/2024
Brandon High School
Thomas W. Harvey High School
USC
Committed
01/11/2025
Temple High School
Mission Viejo High School
Georgia
Committed
11/05/2024
Hough High School
Avon Lake High School
Ohio State
Committed
03/10/2025
South Pointe High School
S Carolina
Committed
10/17/2024
Hermitage High School
The Bolles School
Clemson
Committed
03/08/2025
La Salle College High School
The Hun School Of Princeton
Jackson High School
Lone Peak High School
Carthage High School
American Heritage High School
Panther Creek High School
Oscar Frommel Smith High School
Kemper County High School
Aledo High School
Mustang High School
Oklahoma
Committed
06/24/2024
Richardson High School
USC
Committed
03/14/2025
Mansfield High School
West Forsyth High School
Louisa County High School
Rutgers
Committed
07/27/2024
Oaks Christian High School
USC
Committed
04/05/2025
Carrollton High School
Cass Technical High School
Archbishop Riordan High School
First Baptist Academy
Miami Northwestern High School
Clearwater High School
Wadley High School
Edna Karr High School
LSU
Committed
08/03/2024
Bullis School
Clemson
Committed
03/08/2025
Dorman High School
Colquitt County High School
Douglas County High School
Auburn
Committed
01/11/2025
Jemison High School
Auburn
Committed
07/27/2024
Bishop Montgomery High School
James Martin High School
TCU
Committed
01/18/2025
Haywood High School
Harrisburg High School
Penn State
Committed
08/19/2023
Cardinal Newman High School
Carver High School
Dunlap High School
Auburn High School
Auburn
Committed
07/27/2024
Central High School
Lexington High School
Carol City High School
Miami
Committed
11/22/2023
Weddington High School
Providence Day School
Santa Margarita Catholic High School
USC
Committed
02/23/2025
Weddington High School
Notre Dame
Committed
11/12/2024
Monarch High School
Duncanville High School
Saint Augustine High School
Bastrop High School
Fort Cherry High School
Penn State
Committed
11/02/2024
Kell High School
Lee County High School
Mount Zion High School
Miami Trace High School
Clemson
Committed
03/07/2025
Lincoln-Way East High School
USC
Committed
02/21/2025
Rutherford B. Hayes High School
Del Valle High School
Arizona St
Committed
09/22/2024
Newberry High School
S Carolina
Committed
10/05/2024
Manhattan High School
Kansas
Committed
01/02/2025
De Smet Jesuit High School
Winter Park High School
Phillips Exeter Academy
Lake Mary High School
Notre Dame
Committed
06/01/2024
Mater Dei High School
Lakeland High School
Morgan Park High School
Langston Hughes High School
Holmes County Central High School
Buford High School
Cottage Hill Christian Academy
Auburn
Committed
07/27/2024
Shadow Creek High School
Texas
Committed
06/25/2024
Vero Beach Senior High School
Florida St
Committed
12/12/2023
Prosper High School
Duke
Committed
11/25/2024
Avon High School
Ohio State
Committed
01/02/2025
Bergen Catholic High
Texas A&M
Committed
02/13/2025
Willis High School
Brunswick High School
Petal High School
Santa Margarita Catholic High School
USC
Committed
03/11/2025
Glenville High School
Thomas County Central High School
Milton High School
Ouachita Parish High School
Peters Township High School
Cass High School
Michigan
Committed
02/28/2025
Berkeley Prep
Connally High School
Baylor
Committed
01/30/2025
Bishop Gorman High School
IMG Academy
James Madison High School
Cardinal Mooney High School
Downey High School
James Monroe High School
Green Run High School
Southwest DeKalb High School
North Cobb High School
Bergen Catholic High
Mission Hills High School
Penn State
Committed
06/25/2024
Rolesville High School
Bauxite High School
A. H. Parker High School
Klein High School
Texas
Committed
03/29/2025
Harrisburg High School
Rutgers
Committed
01/15/2024
North Oconee High School
Houston County High School
Honey Grove High School
Baylor
Committed
07/27/2024
Flower Mound High School
McDonogh 35 High School
LSU
Committed
06/23/2024
John F. Kennedy High School
Lake Highlands High School
SMU
Committed
02/06/2025
Olentangy High School
Ohio State
Committed
04/04/2025
Portage Northern High School
Mountain View Preparatory
Booker T. Washington High School
LSU
Committed
03/21/2025
Mount Carmel High School
Windermere Prep
Nebraska
Committed
11/26/2024
Booker T. Washington High School
Jonesboro High School
Miami
Committed
04/05/2025
West Boca Raton High School
Louisville
Committed
03/08/2025
Mater Dei High School
Redwood High School
Arizona St
Committed
02/05/2025
Milford Mill Academy
Walton High School
Corner Canyon High School
USC
Committed
03/11/2025
Greene County High School
Dutch Fork High School
West High School
Iowa
Committed
04/23/2024
South Garner High School
Notre Dame
Committed
04/05/2025
Lake Minneola High School
Clemson
Committed
03/09/2025
First Academy
Florida
Committed
07/31/2024
Donelson Christian Academy
Tennessee
Committed
08/05/2024
Duncanville High School
IMG Academy
East Robertson High School
Airline High School
LSU
Committed
11/12/2024
Nazareth Senior High School
Loudoun County High School
East Kentwood High School
Michigan St
Committed
02/08/2025
Bluffton High School
Virginia Tech
Committed
01/02/2025
Cocoa High School
Iowa Colony High School
Jackson Academy
St. John Bosco High School
Oklahoma
Committed
01/28/2025
Princeton Senior High School
Penn State
Committed
07/31/2024
DePaul Catholic High School
Fort Worth Christian High School
Clayton High School
Naperville North High School
Rocori High School
Minnesota
Committed
01/29/2024
Red Oak High School
Edna Karr High School
Benedictine Military High School
Owasso High School
Norman North High School
Fort Myers High School
Junipero Serra High School
Armwood High School
Miami
Committed
03/07/2025
Crean Lutheran High School
Duluth High School
S Carolina
Committed
11/04/2024
Simeon Career Academy
Miami Northwestern High School
Florida St
Committed
07/04/2024
Monsignor Donovan High School
Celina High School
Willamette High School
Oregon
Committed
10/14/2024
Queen Creek High School
Clemson
Committed
07/07/2024
Jackson Academy
Booker High School
UCF
Committed
04/03/2025
Archbishop Hoban High School
Ohio State
Committed
03/25/2025
Frenship High School
Kamehameha Schools
North Duplin High School
N Carolina
Committed
03/17/2025
West Boca Raton High School
Miami
Committed
03/22/2025
Miami Southridge Senior High School
Syracuse
Committed
03/30/2025
Buchholz High School
Venice High School
Carthage High School
Desert Edge High School
Goleman High School
Florida St
Committed
10/13/2023
Fruitland High School
IMG Academy
Kirkwood High School
The Bolles School
Ohio State
Committed
11/28/2024
Newnan High School
Pace High School
Clemson
Committed
03/09/2025
Jonesboro High School
Grayson High School
Prosper High School
Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School
Auburn
Committed
01/01/2024
Davison High School
Notre Dame
Committed
12/25/2024
Prosper High School
Saint Augustine Prep
Leuzinger High School
Texas A&M
Committed
10/27/2024
Carvers Bay High School
S Carolina
Committed
03/21/2205
Watkins Memorial High School
Ohio State
Committed
11/16/2024
Willis High School
Billings West High School
Rogers High School
Pascagoula High School
McEachern High School
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway