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Major League Baseball certainly isn’t struggling for storylines as it begins its 2025 season, as the introduction of a new “torpedo” bat has rocked the league. Over the weekend, the New York Yankees, the primary users of the new bats, tied an MLB record by hitting nine home runs across the first three games of the season.
As it turns out, the dude who invented the torpedo bats is a field coordinator for the Miami Marlins named Aaron Leanhardt. In the most respectful way possible, Leanhardt appears to be a classic “baseball nerd,” a phrase that’s become popular in the post-Moneyball era.
On Monday night, ahead of the Miami Marlins’ game against the New York Mets — the Marlins lost as the Mets hung 10 runs on them without the use of the torpedo bats — Leanhardt spoke to the media about his potentially game-changing invention, which essentially reshaped the bat in order to have more off the wood (mass) focused toward the center of the bat as opposed to the end.
“There’s a lot more cameras here today than I’m used to. It’s definitely been surreal for the last couple of days,” a bashful Leanhardt joked. “At the end of the day, it’s about the batter and not the bat. It’s about the hitters and their hitting coaches, not their hitting implement.”
“I’m happy to always help those guys get a little bit better. But ultimately, it’s up to them to put good swings on good pitches and grind it out every day. So credit to those guys.”
The man who created the torpedo bat is Miami Marlins field coordinator Aaron Leanhardt
He took the time to speak about it to the media just a couple minutes ago#Marlins @FishOnFirst pic.twitter.com/N6lI0Oy9JG
— Kevin Barral (@kevin_barral) March 31, 2025
“All I can say is I was one of those smart guys for so long that grew up swinging those old, weird-looking bats as well. It’s not until now that maybe anyone thought about this, myself included,” he explained.
“You show up every day. You put on the glove you’re given. You swing the bat that you’re given. You put on the spikes you’re given. And you go about your day as best you can. Every now and then, it takes a little bit of time to question what you’re doing. A couple of years ago, some of the hitters started questioning what they were doing, and I just kind of responded to their questions.”
The torpedo bats are technically legal, as they fall within the parameters outlined by MLB in its rule book. Opinions on whether or not MLB will allow the bats to stay seem to be split.