The Rise of the Bowling Pin Bat: A Game-Changer in Baseball?
Early in the 2023 season, Aaron Leanhardt, a minor league hitting coordinator for the New York Yankees, embarked on a mission to enhance the performance of the team’s hitters. With the league-wide batting average at its lowest point in over fifty years, Leanhardt posed a critical question: How could hitters keep pace in an era dominated by exceptional pitching?
“Players were frustrated by the fact that pitching had gotten so good,” Leanhardt explained. His background as an MIT-educated physics professor at the University of Michigan equipped him with the analytical skills needed to tackle such challenges. As he engaged with more players, a potential solution began to take shape. With strikeouts at an all-time high, hitters sought to increase contact, and Leanhardt proposed a novel approach: enlarging the barrel of the bat.
While the idea of elongating the barrel sounded promising, it presented a practical challenge. Increasing the barrel size would add weight to the bat, potentially slowing down swing speed and negating the benefits of a larger sweet spot. Leanhardt, however, approached the problem from a different angle. He likened each bat to having a “wood budget”—a specific weight (usually 31 or 32 ounces) to be distributed over a certain length. The challenge was to allocate more of this budget to the barrel without compromising the bat’s overall balance.
This line of thinking led to what could be the most significant advancement in bat technology since players transitioned from ash to maple bats. The creation of the bowling pin bat, also known as the torpedo bat, optimizes the bat by redistributing weight from the end toward the area 6 to 7 inches below its tip, where major league players typically make contact. This design gives the bat a unique appearance, with the fat part closer to the handle and the end tapering like a bowling pin.
The Yankees debuted this innovative bat with a bang, tying a major league record by hitting 15 home runs in their first three games. Notably, nine of these home runs came from five Yankees who adopted the bowling pin style: Jazz Chisholm Jr. (three), Anthony Volpe (two), Austin Wells (two), Cody Bellinger (one), and Paul Goldschmidt (one). The unusual shape of the bats quickly caught the attention of fans and players alike, with Yankees announcer Michael Kay highlighting their design during a broadcast. By the weekend’s end, players across the league were inquiring about acquiring these bats.
The Yankees’ home run spree sparked discussions about the legality of the bats. Some fans and opposing players, like Brewers reliever Trevor Megill, compared them to slow-pitch softball bats. However, the bowling pin bats comply with Major League Baseball’s regulations for shape, barrel size, and length. Interestingly, these bats were already used for significant hits in 2024, thanks to one of their earliest adopters.
Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton played a pivotal role in the bowling pin revolution. Leanhardt’s logic resonated with Stanton, whose average bat velocity of 81.2 mph last year was nearly 3 mph faster than the second-fastest swinger and over 9 mph quicker than the MLB average. Stanton embraced the new bat, using it to hit seven home runs in 14 postseason games.
Understanding the Physics Behind the Bowling Pin Bat
To grasp how the bowling pin bat works, consider the physics involved. Imagine swinging a sledgehammer versus a broom handle. The sledgehammer is harder to swing due to its weight distribution, while the broom handle can be swung quickly but lacks mass. In bats, length and weight are constants, but mass distribution is the variable. Leanhardt’s design optimizes this distribution for maximum impact.
Scott Drake, president of PFS-TECO, a wood products laboratory that inspects MLB bats, explained, “This bat is just trying to say: What if we put the mass where the ball is going to hit so that we have an optimized equation of mass and velocity?” He added, “Wood is highly variable, and everything is a trade-off.”
For hitters using the bowling pin bat, it’s a trade-off worth making. The mass concentrated in the barrel means that off-center hits may result in weaker outcomes compared to traditional bats. However, as Leanhardt noted, the difference between a 101 mph batted ball and 102 mph can be the difference between a flyout and a home run.
Leanhardt, who left the Yankees after the 2024 season and is now the major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins, emphasized the importance of maximizing the barrel’s impact. “Every penny counts. The fact of the matter is you want your barrels to count the most. You want the most bang for your buck there.”
The Evolution of Bat Technology
Turning these principles into reality required collaboration across the bat supply chain. Once players embraced Leanhardt’s concept, they requested samples from bat manufacturers. Leanhardt worked with several of MLB’s 41 approved bat makers to bring the idea to life. The spec bats were given model numbers starting with BP for bowling pin, though Leanhardt admits that “torpedo sounds kind of cooler.”
Finding the right balance took time. Bowling pin bats require precision in manufacturing, as every fraction of an ounce matters. Bats are measured not only on a standard scale but also through pendulum-swing tests. Traditional bats, with weight concentrated at the end, don’t oscillate as much as the more balanced bowling pin models.
With relatively lenient regulations from the league, manufacturers had the freedom to innovate within the rules, leading to the creation of this new bat design. Stanton’s success served as proof of concept, and manufacturers arrived at spring training with bowling pin models for players to test in games.
- New pitches are invented every year, but bats have remained largely unchanged for decades.
- Players like Ryan Jeffers of the Minnesota Twins are exploring new bat designs to counter the technological advancements in pitching.
- Jeffers, who used a bowling pin model in the first three games of the season, noted the historical evolution of bats from heavy “telephone poles” to optimized modern designs.
Jeffers, who has spent considerable time seeking ways to counterbalance the technological revolution in pitching, tried a bowling pin model from manufacturer B45 during spring training. Around the same time, Chisholm received his new bowling pin bats and found them indistinguishable from his traditional model.
“I mean, it still felt like my bat,” Chisholm told reporters, echoing Jeffers’ sentiment that bowling pin varieties swing similarly to standard bats. “I hit the ball at the barrel, feel comfortable in the box. I don’t know what else to tell you. I don’t know the science of it, I’m just playing baseball.”
The science behind the bowling pin bat is multifaceted. Beyond potential increases in exit velocity from the increased mass in the barrel, the weight distribution toward the knob should promote faster swings. Among the five Yankees using the bat, all have seen year-over-year increases in bat velocity, with Volpe up more than 3 mph, Bellinger up 2.5, Wells 2, Chisholm 1.1, and Goldschmidt 0.3 mph.
“Credit to any of the players who were willing to listen to me, because it’s crazy,” Leanhardt said. “Listening to me describe it is sometimes even crazier. It’s a long-running project, and I’m happy for the guys that bought into it.”
While the data on bat velocity and effectiveness is still limited, the bowling pin bat is gaining traction. Leanhardt’s new team, the Marlins, plans to feature players using the bat in games. Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays recently hit an RBI single with a bowling pin model. In addition to the Yankees and Marlins, the Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles are investing in bat geometry research.
One player, who doesn’t plan to use the bowling pin model, mentioned that multiple teammates are considering trying it in batting practice after the Yankees’ impressive home run display. The decision to adopt it full-time will depend on both comfort and success. In a sport where advantages are quickly discovered, the Yankees’ edge may be short-lived.
“There’s going to be a lot more teams wanting to swing them,” Jeffers said, “because of what the Yankees did this weekend.”
Originally Written by: Jeff Passan
