Rob Manfred, commissioner of MLB, has spoken out about the new torpedo bats that have caused so much controversy at the start of the 2025 season.
The results of the new bat were evident from the first games, with the New York Yankees setting several home run records against the Milwaukee Brewers, and that immediately sparked interest and suggested several conspiracy theories.
Manfred, in a Q&A session with The New York Times, said that the torpedo bats that the Yankees and other teams are using to get wins early in the season are “absolutely good for baseball”.
Manfred dismisses conspiracy theories in favor of Yankees
Conspiracy theories suggest that MLB wants the Yankees to rack up wins, but from a business standpoint, the torpedo bats have generated the attention of the entire baseball-loving fan base at a time when ratings are declining to the point that ESPN is ending a long-running television partnership with Major League Baseball this season.
I think things like the torpedo bat and the debate around it show that baseball still occupies a unique place in our culture, because people go crazy over something that, after all, is nothing. The bats follow the rules.
Torpedo bats have a larger portion of the barrel centered on the point of frequent, individualized contact for each player.
“In fact, players have been changing the sweet spot of bats for many years,” Manfred added. “But this shows that there is something in the game that is more important than what is captured by ratings, revenues or anything else, when it is discussed and debated.”
Pitchers began to complain about the torpedo bats during the opening weekend, especially when the Bronx Bombers equaled a single-series home run record with 15 homers in their opening series of the season against Milwaukee, nine of them in a single game.
Giancarlo Stanton, who had a memorable postseason when the Yankees reached the 2024 World Series, was one of the MLB players who used a torpedo bat last season.
This season, Stanton is out of action with an elbow injury, but he refused to draw a correlation between the two, according to The Post.
Manfred in favor of a more dynamic game
Sports are often accused of changing their rules to favor scoring and offense in order to attract the attention of fans.
Manfred said MLB is not necessarily looking to generate more home runs, but rather reduce downtime.
“It is often talked about the balance between pitching and hitting and those kinds of things. Something we learned through all the research we did with the fans is that athleticism is the most important thing, perhaps more than anything else,” Manfred explained.
“Anything that promotes defensive athleticism, stolen bases. Action, movement, the ability to demonstrate how athletic you are. Any change that allows you to show the athleticism of your players is fundamental,” concluded the commissioner.
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