Did the NY Yankees cheat with new ‘Torpedo’ bat designs? MLB Insider sheds light on controversy following team’s massive 20-9 win against Brewers

The New York Yankees used "Torpedo" designed bats in their 20-9 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday.

Did the NY Yankees cheat with new ‘Torpedo’ bat designs? MLB Insider sheds light on controversy following team’s massive 20-9 win against Brewers

Jazz Chisholm Jr., one of the Yankees players who used the 'Torpedo' designed bats (Image via Athlon Sports/Sports Illustrated)

On Saturday, the New York Yankees came out flying high and crushed the Milwaukee Brewers 20-9. The game saw the Bronx Bombers hit 9 home runs, with 3 coming off the bat of Aaron Judge. However, there are some who are now accusing them of cheating with the new ‘Torpedo’ bat design. An MLB insider later shed light on this controversy.

The Yankees started the game with 3 back-to-back-to-back home runs from Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, and Aaron Judge. These three home runs came in three pitches off former Yankees starting pitcher Nestor Cortes.

YouTube video

Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Oswald Peraza all homered as well as the Yankees had a great day in the offense department. However, there are some who are claimed that the Yankees used illegal bats to gain an advantage over their opponents.

During the game, Yankees play-by-play announcer Michael Kay pointed out the bats of the Yankees. He explained that the team had found out that Anthony Volpe had been hitting every single ball with the label of the bat and not the barrel. In order to fix this, the team made bats with a lot of wood in the label part of the bat.

The Yankee front office, the analytics department, did a study on Anthony Volpe and every single ball it seemed like he hit on the label. He didn’t hit any on the barrel. So they had bats made up where they moved a lot of the wood into the label, so the harder part of the bat is going to actually strike the ball.

Michael Kay explained

This change seems to have worked out well for the Volpe. The 24-year-old shortstop managed to hit an opposite-field home run in the first game of the season. In the 2nd match of this series, he blew the game wide open in the 2nd inning with a three-run home run.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. then smashed a solo home run in the third inning to extend the Yankees’ lead to 13-3. So is this new bat design illegal and cheating? The answer is no. As per The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner, the design is legal and is not breaking the rules.

Just to put this to bed, MLB says the new bats the Yankees are using are legal.

Chris Kirschner on X

What does the official MLB rules say regarding bats?

The New York Yankees found themselves under the spotlight after their emphatic 20-9 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. The bats that they used are getting criticized by fans on social media, with many accusing them of cheating. This led to MLB insider Chris Kirschner pointing out that the trick they used was legal. So what is the exact rules regarding the bats?

Anthony Volpe
The ‘Torpedo’ bats were designed by the Yankees after running tests on Anthony Volpe (Image via Reddit)

As per the MLB rules, “the bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length“. As long as the new designs of the Yankees bats follow this rule, it is not illegal for them to have more wood in the label area.

This usage of bats now raises two major questions. Will more members of the Yankees squad start using these bats going forward after seeing the effects of them? Or will more teams take notice of this and start using this to improve their batting as well? It likely will not be a pleasant sight for the pitchers if players start using this design.

Former Yankees player explains difference between corked bat and ‘Torpedo’ design bat following Yankees 20-9 victory

The New York Yankees‘ usage of the ‘Torpedo’ design bat has led to many comparing it with a corked bat and calling it illegal. A former Yankees player explained the difference between them following the 20-9 win of the team on Saturday.

Aaron Judge
Aaron Judge hit 3 home runs in the 20-9 win on Saturday (Image via X/@BRWalkoff)

In a post on X, free agent Kevin Smith came to the defense of the Yankees. The 28-year-old previously pointed out that the team hired an MIT Physicist, Lenny, who invented this ‘Torpedo’ barrel. A fan would later ask Smith what difference does these two bats have then.

A corked bat is illegal and outperforms standard wood. This is simply a smarter way to think about how you should design a bat. It’s within all the rules, and isn’t even the biggest the barrel can get. They left it a tad small on purpose, so there’s no confusion.

Kevin Smith on X

So this usage is well within the rules of the MLB. The Yankees will now turn their attention to the game on Sunday and hoped to sweep the Brewers and extend their positive run.