MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred lent his support to the so-called torpedo bats that have caught the attention of baseball fans and teachers since the beginning of the 2025 season.
The bats were first highlighted during New York Yankees’ opening day match against Milwaukee Brewers. Eyebrows were further raised as New York mashed nine home runs against the breweries in the season’s second game.
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New York Yankees’ Anthony Volpe Bats with one of the team’s newly manufactured torpedo -shaped bats in a baseball match against Milwaukee Brewers, Saturday, March 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Several players have since begun to use the bats, even when pitchers have complained. But Manfred supported the use of it in a recent conversation.
“I think questions like torpedo bats and the debate around it show the fact that baseball still occupies a unique place in our culture because people come in a complete madness over something that really is nothing at the end of the day. The bats are adhering to the rules,” he told the New York Times.
Manfred added that “players have actually moved the sweet place into bats for years” and highlighted the debate that baseball became ratings and participation.
Commissioner Rob Manfred (Mike Carlson/MLB -Photos via Getty Images/File)
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Baseball Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins also weighed in on the debate in an interview about Outkick’s “The Ricky Cobb Show.”
“Well, when you look back on the game when I played in the 60s, ’70s,’ 80s, the jug was pretty much dominant, and now we’re like second -class citizens. Everything has been done for the hitter. Just like, you say the clock, the bases are bigger, you have one over glove, giving you an extra three to seven inches sliding into the bag in front,” Jenkins said.
In addition to the changes in the rule that favors mothers, Jenkins said the torpedo bats are just the latest thing in baseball that will help them.
“There is more of a frame surface for the hitter, and I think it can increase the batting average a bit, but you get a better piece of wood on the ball, and the ball may want to travel a little longer,” he said.
Torpedo baseball bats appear at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, PA., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
“Who knows? A couple of extra-base hits, and now a hitter is watching one of his teammates use it. Now he will use it. I can believe before all-star break every ball club will have half a dozen meetings using the torpedo bat.”
