First two SF Giants players confirmed to have used Torpedo Bats go hitless

There has been no buzzier word or phrase this year in MLB than "Torpedo Bat." While the SF Giants were a little bit late to joining the new trend, the first two players to use the new type of bat have gone hitless thus far.

Seemingly every year or two there is a new addition to the lexicon of baseball that fans start to hear about a lot. Some years it is a new statistic, other years it is a new way to categorize a pitch like with the "sweeper." Thus far, 2025 has been the year of the torpedo bat.

2 SF Giants players go hitless using the trendy new Torpedo Bat

The bats gained prominence early this season when the New York Yankees went off and had an offensive explosion, mashing 15 home runs in their first three games. Several star players on the team were using the torpedo bats and used them to hit some long, impressive homers. Everyone was immediately intrigued by these mysterious new bats.

The thing that makes a torpedo bat unique is the fact that it is thicker around the barrel with more density where the batter is most likely to make contact with the ball while it is skinnier on the lower end of the bat, giving it a slight bowling pin appearance. The thinking is if a player barrels a ball, it is likely to go further because of that density.

It was reported earlier in April that the Giants had some shipments of the bats on the way, but with demand high it took some time for manufacturers to be able to get them out to players. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported before Sunday's game that the first Giant to use one of the torpedos was second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald who went hitless with it on Friday.

During Sunday's game, Giants broadcasters Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper pointed out that catcher Patrick Bailey appeared to be using a torpedo bat. He too went hitless, but he did give a ball a ride to deep left-center field that he seemed to think was a home run off the bat before it was caught. It makes sense that the Gold Glove-winning catcher is giving the torpedo bat a try given his batting average is .164 on the season.

Kruk and Kuip said they got a chance to get their hands on the bats before the game and Krukow marveled at how it did not feel top-heavy despite there being more wood concentrated in the barrel. Kuiper, a defense-first second baseman who was not known for his offensive prowess during his playing days, said he had not had a desire to hit in about 40 years but after wielding the torpedo bat in his hands he wanted to get out and take a few swings with it in the batting cage.

It will be interesting to see which Giants start using the bats as more become available and who ends up sticking with them for the long term. President of baseball operations Buster Posey has said he would have tried out the torpedo bat if he was still a player and has encouraged guys on the team to give them a try if they want to.

Even though Fitzgerald and Bailey went hitless in their first attempts with the torpedo bat, expect to see more and more Giants players experiment with them as they become available.