Coming into the 2025 MLB season, the question marks surrounding the New York Yankees had more to do with their pitching. Too many injuries to their flamethrowers had fans worried about how the team would fare, at least for the early portion of the season. Thankfully, there were no question marks about their offense, and the team made that much clear on Saturday.
The Yankees went crazy from the plate against the Milwaukee Brewers, driving in 20 run on just 16 hits. New York hit nine home runs, one away from tying the Toronto Blue Jays’ record from 1987. The Yankees have plenty of power hitters, so it makes some sense, but nine home runs is almost unprecedented. That had analysts trying to figure out what went right. In the process, the Yankees may have gotten exposed for “cheating” the system.
Are New York Yankees’ new bats considered legal by MLB?
According to YES Network’s Michael Kay, the club had the players’ bats retrofitted to put more of the wood of the bat into the “label so the harder part of the bat is going to strike the ball”.
This obviously did not sit well with fans once they learned of this tactic. A large majority of them doubted the legality of it, pleading MLB to look into it.
But as Sean Keeley of Awful Announcing points out, it’s actually completely legal. Citing the MLB rulebook, Keeley notes that the Yankees’ bats comply with the parameters set by the league.
“The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.“
If the Yankees keep hitting an inordinate amount of home runs with these new bats, though, something may change. Until then, expect a couple of teams to try to copy them.
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