The introduction of the "torpedo bat" has dominated the discussion of MLB's opening week, and it's not hard to see why.
After a century and a half of baseball's existence, a New York Yankees in-house physicist had the idea to thicken the barrel of the bat where it most often hits the ball, and the result so far has been a whole lot of homers and a whole lot of arguing.
The torpedo bat is hardly an automatic slugging percentage producer — it's difficult to take any hard analysis on the bat's effect seriously when some teams haven't played in their own ballpark yet — but it's at least something new in a sport historically resistant to change.
And at least one pitcher is fine with hitters keeping their bowling-pin-style bats, provided pitchers get something in return.
Philadelphia Phillies reliever Matt Strahm proposed such a deal on Monday, saying hitters can "use whatever bat they want," as long as pitchers can go back to using the pine tar those same hitters use to handle those bats.
Let them use whatever bat they want. Let’s just allow pitchers to use whatever hitters have in the on deck circle. And not check us like we are criminals every time we walk on or off the field. I’m just a pitcher but I’m assuming better grip helps ya swing harder…
— Matt Strahm (@MattStrahm) April 1, 2025
Also, Strahm outlined, do away with mandatory umpire hand checks.
MLB famously cracked down on pitchers' use of sticky stuff in 2021 and has continued to do its best to prevent workarounds to its ban. The type of sticky stuff used varied from pitcher to pitcher — some used a tacky mixture of two legal substances, sunscreen and rosin, while others used a Pelican Grip substance so strong it would leave residue from the baseball's leather on their fingers.
