Yankees' 'torpedo bats' are far from universal adoption with Aaron Judge among the skeptics in the clubhouse

There are five Yankees currently using the “torpedo bats” that had their explosive regular-season debut over the weekend.

And while the testing out of those bats across the sport appears ready to spread like wildfire — the bats have been a hot topic for two days now in 29 other clubhouses, and ESPN reported during its Sunday Night Baseball broadcast that Atlanta already had ordered a supply — it very much remains to be seen just how widespread their use will become.

Starting in the Yankees’ clubhouse.

Because as much as has been made of the Yankees using those bats — the list, at the moment, comprises Jazz Chisholm Jr., Anthony Volpe, Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Austin Wells, who have totaled nine homers in three games — it also is currently true that the number of Yankees not using the bats is larger than the number using them.

And that list, of course, starts with Aaron Judge.

“What I did the past couple seasons speaks for itself,” Judge said with a smile late Sunday morning. “Why try to change something if you have something that’s working?”

Had he at least tried out one of the new bats, even behind the scenes?

“I have not,” Judge said.

“There’s a lot of new things in the game,” he said. “Like, they’ve added the little hockey puck on the bottom of some guys’ bats to add a counterweight; you’ve got the torpedo bats, you’ve got so many different things. As my career goes on, maybe I can start adding some of those in if I start losing something, but I’m good where I’m at right now.”

Using a traditional bat, Judge became the first Yankee, and only the 13th player in MLB history, to hit at least four homers in his team’s first three games of a season.

Let alone what he’s done in his career, which includes a pair of American League MVP seasons in 2022, when he hit an AL-record 62 homers, and again last year, when he hit 58.

Which is not to say there is nothing to the new bats. According to multiple social media posts from former Yankees minor-leaguer Kevin Smith, they’re the brainchild of former MIT physicist Aaron Leanhardt, who served as the Yankees’ major league analyst last season.

Before joining the Yankees’ big-league club in 2024, Leanhardt worked in their organization as a minor-league hitting coordinator. He was hired by the Marlins in the offseason.

“I know Lenny was working really hard on it,” Volpe said Sunday.

The bats differ from the more traditional models as they have additional wood mass past the label of the bat — giving the thicker part of the bat an almost bowling pin-like look — which essentially makes for a bigger sweet spot.

“The bigger you can have the barrel where you’re going to hit the ball makes sense to me,” Volpe said.

Said Bellinger: “I think the benefit for me is I like the weight distribution, personally. The weight’s closer to my hands, so I feel it’s lighter in a way. That for me was the biggest benefit. And then, obviously, the bigger the sweet spot, the bigger the margin for error.”

Major League Baseball, like pretty much every other sports enterprise, is a copycat league, and with the Yankees totaling an MLB record-tying 15 homers in their first three games — including the franchise-record nine homers they hit Saturday — it’s not surprising that players elsewhere scampered to get in touch with their bat reps about trying out a torpedo model.

Hitting has never been more difficult. Anything deemed as having a chance to make a hitter’s job even a fraction easier will be, and should be, explored.

But it is far too soon to declare the new model as transformative for the game. It may turn out to be, but it also could fall by the wayside after its 15 minutes in the spotlight. The most likely reason for that is because those bats suddenly felt far less comfortable during the inevitable 1-for-25 slide every major-leaguer goes through.

Goldschmidt, who is using the new bat, was among many pushing back on the revolutionizing-the-game element of the story (Aaron Boone, a third-generation big-leaguer, also is in that group).

“We’re always tinkering [with things],” Goldschmidt said of players, whether it be their stances, swings, bats, gloves or other pieces of equipment. “Guys have tried different bats throughout the year, throughout their career. I really don’t think it’s anything too different.”

To be continued.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.