The New York Yankees have lit the baseball world on fire with a new type of bat that's seen incredible early results. A few Yankees hitters began using a different type of bat that's been dubbed the "torpedo bat" and the results were spectacular.
In the first game in which the public knew about these bats, the Yankees slugged nine home runs and scored 20 runs in a dominant performance over the Milwaukee Brewers. Because of this success, the bats immediately become the biggest story in the game. On Monday night, Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds debuted a torpedo bat and went 4/5 with two home runs and a rocket double.
At this point, it seems as though a large chunk of the league will give this style of bat a try before the month of April is over. Even players that didn't want to use them last year.
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Ex-Yankees Star Juan Soto opens up to torpedo bat idea
The bats were around last year. The Yankees, including Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Trevino, had begun using them a year ago. Not everybody was on board, including former Yankees superstar outfielder Juan Soto, who's now with the New York Mets. Now, it seems like Soto is on board with the idea.
“I had teammates last year [with the Yankees] that asked me if I wanted to try it, but it never caught my attention,” Soto told Mike Puma of The New York Post. “But, yeah, I would try it.”
Soto's teammate Francisco Lindor is one of the users of the new bat, though Lindor hasn't seen the same success as the rest of the players using them. In fact, Lindor has struggled tremendously to begin the year.
That doesn't mean the bat isn't for him or Soto. Even with this new bat, players will go through the ups and downs of baseball. Pitching is still evolving at an alarming rate, and hitting a baseball is still the hardest task to do in sports. Just because there's a new style of bat on the market doesn't mean the league will magically begin to hit .300 again. The hitter will still be at a disadvantage to the pitcher.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Soto try the new bats out, at least in batting practice, over the next few days. I'd be shocked if nearly every player in the league wasn't giving it a try, except for Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. I wouldn't change a thing if I were the two of them.