The New York Yankees came into the 2025 MLB season, as they do in most seasons, as a generally unpopular team to most baseball fans. That has only been accentuated by a number of their players’ use of the highly discussed “torpedo bats” throughout the team’s first series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
The “torpedo bats,” created by current Miami Marlins field coordinator and former Yankees minor-league hitting analyst Aaron Leanhardt, have quickly become a hot-button issue in baseball.
This is mainly because, through the first three games of the season, the torpedo bat has yielded excellent results for several Yankees hitters, including Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Volpe, and Austin Wells. In the first three games of the season, the Yankees have scored 36 runs, which is far and away the most of any team in baseball.
The MLB has already said the bats are legal and have also become a subject of criticism from old-school baseball fans who perhaps see them as some kind of competitive advantage.
Enter Dave Portnoy, a die-hard fan of the Boston Red Sox who is quick to remind everyone of his past as a high school baseball player. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Portnoy has had plenty to say about Yankees players’ use of the torpedo bats.
On Sunday, Portnoy posted a video on X ranting about the use of torpedo bats, claiming that the bats’ dimensions make players “who stink” play better.
“If you get sawed off, or you hit a ball off the label, that means you’re not getting your hands through quick enough — and you stink,” said Portnoy. “Just taking the bat and making the thing like a corked bat with this torpedo hump, so all you got to do is make contact, and it’s a home run, which the Yankees are doing right now. That defeats the whole — that’s just making someone who stinks better. If you get jammed and it’s a home run, that doesn’t mean you suddenly got better. That’s just some geek from MIT, some physicist ruining 100 years of baseball or 200 years of baseball.”
Portnoy mentioned Chisholm directly in his rant, which the Yankees’ outfielder seemingly noted. In a series of posts, the former All-Star responded by clowning Portnoy for mentioning his high school playing days.
“This is a high school baller talking,” wrote Chisholm.
This is a high school baller talking 🤣
— Jazz Chisholm Jr (@j_chisholm3) March 31, 2025
Then, Chisholm followed this up with a post on X further explaining how the torpedo bats came about and how the bat isn’t breaking any kind of rule, rather just transferring wood from a part of the bat where it isn’t needed into the barrel that most commonly makes contact with the ball.
“Okay explanation the barrel is bigger and within MLB regulation! For the idiots that say it’s moved to the label you’re an idiot! Nobody is trying to get jammed, you just move the wood from the parts you don’t use to the parts you do! You’re welcome no more stress for y’all!”
Okay explanation the barrel is bigger and within mlb regulation! For the idiots that say it’s moved to the label you’re an idiot! Nobody is trying to get jammed you just move the wood from the parts you don’t use to the parts you do! You’re welcome no more stress for y’all !
— Jazz Chisholm Jr (@j_chisholm3) March 31, 2025
This prompted Portnoy to reply with a photoshopped picture of Chisholm at the plate with an even more exaggerated barrel than the torpedo bat he uses.
“This you ain’t it?” wrote Portnoy.
This you ain’t it? https://t.co/VFJzFD1MAZ pic.twitter.com/B2rhURxXem
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) March 31, 2025
The problem with Portnoy attacking the Yankees, particularly Chisholm, for using the torpedo bat is that it isn’t exclusively something the Yankees are doing.
Several high-profile players on other teams, including Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, and Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson, are all similarly using torpedo bats among many other players around the league.
That narrative doesn’t fit Pornoy’s agenda. So, at least in his mind, the torpedo bats are something only the Yankees are doing to cheat early in the season.
The fact of the matter is that whether Portnoy likes it or not, as long as torpedo bats are deemed legal by the MLB, they may become increasingly common around the league, especially if the results from players using them continue to be positive.
