Not a week has elapsed since the 2025 MLB Opening Day but there’s already controversy swirling in the big leagues. At the center of it all is the “torpedo bat,” which gained fame after the New York Yankees pummeled the Milwaukee Brewers for nine home runs last Saturday. But it has also gained notoriety to many others, seemingly including Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Matt Strahm.
Strahm appeared to take issue with what he seemingly perceives as an unfair view in terms of the desire to make baseball more exciting through increased offense as opposed to how pitchers are treated.
“If pitchers mattered in this game, maybe I’d have (an opinion),” Strahm said (h/t Anthony SanFilippo of OnPattison). “But we get checked like criminals every time we walk off the mound, so I don’t think our opinion matters anymore. I think they made that very clear. It’s all about offense. So, yeah, let’s make more offense.”
Like all other pitchers, Strahm, who was an All-Star during his second season with the Phillies in 2024, needs to get checked by the umpires for “sticky substance” before getting on the mound and after leaving it.
The torpedo bat is a custom-made bat that is designed to add more mass to the area where a hitter usually makes contact with the ball. It is also said to have been invented by an MIT physicist, Aaron Leonhardt, who worked with NASA and taught physics at Michigan for nearly a decade before getting a career in baseball.
In any case, the torpedo bats are here to stay. At the end of the day, it is legal and nothing is stopping other teams from using them. Strahm even noted another team that used it in 2024.
“Go back and watch the Baltimore Orioles, they used it last year, right,” Strahm shared. “It’s only getting coverage because it’s the Yankees.”
As for the Phillies, at least one player on the team has hopped on the torpedo bat boat, with third baseman Alec Bohm, who already used it during Monday’s home opener against the Colorado Rockies. Bohm went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
When asked after the game about whether it worked, Bohm simply said: “Did I hit a home run?” (h/t Devan Kaney of SPORTSRADIO 94WIP).
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