Don’t count on Aaron Judge, the American League’s reigning Most Valuable Player Award winner, to become the next member of the New York Yankees to take up the team’s new “torpedo” bat. Rather, Judge intends to stick to what has enabled him to succeed throughout his big-league career.
“What I did the past couple of seasons speaks for itself,” Judge explained to reporters, including The Athletic. “Why try to change something if you have something that’s working?”
To Judge’s point, he’s amassed a career .288/.406/.607 slash line (174 OPS+) over the course of his first 10-plus seasons in the majors. Over that time he’s received six All-Star Game designations, four Silver Slugger Awards, two MVP trophies, and both the American League and Yankees franchise single-season home-run record. In other words, the lumber Judge uses works just fine, thank you very much.
For those new to the “torpedo” bat concept, a few Yankees players (including Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe) are using bats with altered physical properties — essentially, the mass is shifted from the traditional barrel to the label area on the bat. The inspiration for that shape stems from a Yankees front office member. Former infielder Kevin Smith took to social media to break down the differences in the bats. Smith added the goal behind the “torpedo” bat is to increase barrels and decrease whiffs.
To be clear: this is all legal. The “torpedo” bat falls within MLB’s regulations on dimensions. Besides, it’s hardly the first (and won’t be the last) time players and teams have experimented with equipment modifications. All the same, you can understand why folks are raising their eyebrows about the Yankees’ sticks after they plated 20 runs against the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday.
Judge with his more traditional piece of lumber, by the way, homered thrice and drove in eight runs.
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