New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) watches his two-run home run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the first inning at Yankee Stadium. Brad Penner-Imagn Images
The New York Yankees’ use of a “torpedo” style baseball bat was all the talk around MLB over the weekend, but Aaron Judge is not one of the players using the bat. He has a very good reason why.
Judge entered played on Monday tied with Eugenio Suarez for the MLB lead with four home runs. He ripped 58 home runs last season and 62 in 2022. Judge has a career slugging percentage of over .600 and a career OPS of over 1.000.
Naturally, the Yankees slugger says he’s not using a torpedo bat because his performance with a standard-style bat is already so good there is no need to mess with it.
“What I’ve done the past couple of seasons speaks for itself,” Judge said on Sunday, via Yankees reporter Bryan Hoch.
He couldn’t have said it any better.
The torpedo-style bat puts more wood in certain parts of the barrel, such as lower than where the standard barrel usually is. The idea is to beef up the bat in the place where a hitter makes most of his contact. The barrel for standard bats gets gradually larger from the handle all the way to the end.
Players wish they could put up numbers like Judge. He has the Yankees’ single-season record for homers in a season. His OPS last season was more than 150 points higher than the second-place person — his former teammate, Juan Soto. There’s no reason to mess with what’s working exceptionally well.
But for hitters like Jazz Chisholm Jr. or Anthony Volpe, the torpedo-style bat makes plenty of sense.
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