YES Network
Are the New York Yankees cheating the system? That’s what baseball fans believe after the Yankees unveiled “experimental” bats that shifted the weight around from the barrel to other areas of the bat. The changes came to light during Saturday’s 20-9 blowout victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, a game in which New York hit a whopping nine home runs.
Three of those home runs came on the first three pitches of the game against former Yankees starter Nestor Cortes, with a four coming later in the first inning. Later in the game, legendary YES Network broadcast Michael Kay explained that the Yankees altered bats for specific players by moving a lot of the wood into the label so the hardest part of the bat strikes the ball.
The Yankees created some new bats by moving a lot of the wood into the label so the hardest part of the bat strikes the ball pic.twitter.com/xcPXilC0U7
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 29, 2025
“You see the shape of Chisholm’s bat?” Kay asked his co-commentator. “…The Yankee front office, the analytics department, did a study on Anthony Volpe, and every single ball it seemed like he hit on the label. He didn’t hit any on the barrel, so they had bats made up where they moved a lot of the wood into the label, so the harder part of the bat is going to actually strike the ball. … It’ll allow you to wait a little bit longer.”
MLB rules allow weight to be distributed throughout the bat so long as the thickest part of the barrel is no wider than 2.61 inches. Bats must also be one solid, continuous piece of wood and can be long longer than 42 inches. Major League Baseball also allows team to alter bats, but they must be approved by the league before usage in games.
Unsurprisingly, baseball fans were extremely skeptical.
“So instead of getting players who can hit with ANY bat, they spend their money to game the system and hope they can get away with it for as long as they possibly can. Pathetic,” one fan wrote.
Even Yankees fans had questions.
“As a yanks fan idk how this is legal,” one tweeted.
Ultimately, it’s extremely unlikely the Yankees broke any rule. And it would be painfully obvious if they had. But it still looks weird, and you have to wonder if more teams will follow suit.