Reengineering the Swing: The Impact of Torpedo Bats on Today's Game

Published: 04/10/2025 12:00 am

Reengineering the Swing: The Impact of Torpedo Bats on Today's Game

By Quick Sports Chat Staff

Major League Baseball has recently entered a new era of innovation with the introduction of the Torpedo Bat. This past year, the New York Yankees launched an initiative to enhance their players' offensive performance through advanced technology. Leveraging an already robust system of high-speed cameras and motion-tracking tools, the Yankees began analyzing precise points of contact between bat and ball. 

In an effort to optimize player performance through technology, the New York Yankees brought in MIT graduate Aaron Leanhardt to lead a data-driven initiative focused on improving offensive output. Tasked with exploring ways to fine-tune both player mechanics and equipment, Leanhardt began by analyzing contact points for various hitters, starting with shortstop Anthony Volpe.

Through detailed motion analysis, Leanhardt discovered that Volpe consistently made contact near the label of the bat, just below the traditional barrel area, often resulting in jammed swings. This insight sparked an ambitious idea: what if the bat could be redesigned so that the barrel aligned more closely with a hitter’s natural contact zone?

However, shifting the barrel location posed a challenge. Adding mass to the bat risked making it too heavy and unbalanced. As interest in the concept grew, several other teams joined the Yankees in partnering with the bat manufacturer. Over an 18-month period, they worked collaboratively to develop a bat that maintained its overall mass while redistributing weight, bringing the “sweet spot” closer to the hitter’s hands.

The result was the debut of the innovative “Torpedo Bat,” which Volpe quietly used during last season’s playoffs. It wasn’t until the Yankees’ explosive start this year that the bat, and the technology behind it, drew widespread attention from fans and media alike. 

Why is this important and who cares about a barrel?

The concept of a "Barrel" is central to evaluating offensive performance in the modern game. A Barrel represents a batted ball struck with an optimal combination of exit velocity and launch angle, conditions that statistically produce the most favorable outcomes for hitters. These are the types of contact most likely to result in extra-base hits, including home runs.

The impact of barreled balls is significant. During the 2016 MLB season, batted balls classified as Barrels produced an extraordinary .822 batting average and a 2.386 slugging percentage, far exceeding typical league averages ( .255 BA, and .417 SLG%). In essence, Barrels are a reliable indicator of a hitter’s ability to generate high-quality contact and drive offensive production.

To qualify as a Barrel, a ball must be hit with an exit velocity of at least 98 mph. At that speed, a launch angle between 26 and 30 degrees meets the threshold. As exit velocity increases, the range of qualifying launch angles broadens, further increasing the likelihood of a powerful result.

In today’s analytics-driven game, where every competitive edge is measured and maximized, improving a player's Barrel rate has become a key objective for both hitters and teams. This season, take a closer look at the bats being used, you’ll notice a wider variety of shapes, sizes, and designs appearing across the league. If the early data holds true and these innovations lead to a measurable increase in Barrel rates, the result could be a surge in offensive production, potentially rewriting record books in the coming years. As the Torpedo Bat continues to be refined and optimized, its impact on the modern hitter may prove to be game-changing.