MLB Fans Accuse The Yankees Of Cheating After Hitting 9 Home Runs In A Game Thanks To Their Newly-Designed Bats

Cheating, or just science?

Of course a lot of people hate the New York Yankees, for the same reason people were cheering against the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl this year or the New England Patriots back when they were in the middle of their dynasty run. Although the Yankees haven’t won a World Series since 2009, they’re still seen as the villain every year thanks to their superstar-filled rosters and willingness (and ability) to spend whatever it takes to get to the postseason.

And they’re apparently one step ahead of every other team in the analytics department too.

The 2025 MLB season just kicked off, but the Yankees are already turning heads after just two games thanks to an incredible 20-9 win over the Milwaukee Brewers yesterday that saw the Bronx Bombers blast off 9 home runs, including three from superstar outfielder Aaron Judge.

The 9 homers in a single game was a franchise record for the Yankees, and many are attributing the offensive explosion to the new bats the team unveiled this season.

If you watch the Yankees, you may notice that some of the bats they use look more like bowling pins – and that’s by design. The bats were developed by former Yankees front office member Kevin Smith, who realized that some players were hitting a lot of foul balls because they were hitting closer to the label as opposed to the top of the bat. So the team designed the new “Torpedo” barrel bats that move the mass of the bat further down, closer to the hitter’s hands, to give them a better chance at making contact and getting a hit versus just fouling it off.

Michael Kay explains that the Yankees made new bats "where they moved a lot of the wood into the label so the harder part of the bat is going to strike the ball."

Seems relevant today… pic.twitter.com/cpldzigdrT

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 29, 2025

And I know what you’re thinking: That can’t be legal.

Well, it is. The MLB has confirmed that the new bats are perfectly legal, and they already seem to be paying dividends for the Yankees.

Now, Judge says that he wasn’t using the new bat when he ripped off three homers against the Brewers, but that hasn’t stopped some MLB fans from crying foul and accusing the Yankees of cheating – despite the fact that the bats are perfectly legal:

People really think that its normal that the only team given special bats and end up with 9 homeruns isnt cheating.
The last time a team hit 9 homeruns in a game was
NEVER.
Over 218,000 games played and the only time this happened is when the Yankees are given special bats

— Chris Ketchem (@ChrisKetchem3) March 29, 2025

classy Yankees cheating https://t.co/xhxAU4UZfM

— Miguel (@M1gueII) March 29, 2025

So the Yankees cheated today?

— Bastards of Boston Baseball (@Bastards_Boston) March 29, 2025

this needs to be investigated immediatly. The Yankees historically has cheated and bent the rules… Cashman admitted as much when I was in a repoter scrum back in 2008. The commish needs to see the legality of this especially for a team that is desperate after the offseason. https://t.co/qWYtlWJDAc

— Talkin Mets Podcast (@TalkinMetsNoG) March 29, 2025

Yankees cheating, classic https://t.co/v115lG6Nf1

— HoppyFrog (@TheHoppyFrog22) March 30, 2025

Yankees just blatantly cheating, and yet it’s Altuve that keeps getting booed. https://t.co/g9lEW7dwKs

— JE Heath (@luthernerd) March 29, 2025

YANKEES CHEATING https://t.co/Up0xqA3XTU pic.twitter.com/G02ifKiTAY

— Ben (@benkruse144) March 29, 2025

So @Yankees fans like were crying because the @astros illegally used a camera system to steal signs. But now their cheating with the illegal new bats? @MLB #yankeesnewbats

— Willy_Wonky13 (@BiloThekidd) March 30, 2025

How’s that old saying go? “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” It seems like the Yankees were just the first to figure out this new (perfectly legal) bat design, and now other teams are mad that they didn’t think of it first.

I mean, do you really think the rest of the MLB isn’t hard at work making their own Torpedo bats at this very moment? Of course they are. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, don’t be surprised to see this bat become common amongst every team, at least until the MLB does decide to ban it.

I know it’s easy to hate the Yankees, but in this case, it seems like they should be given credit for coming up with something – that was completely in the rules – that may change the game of baseball entirely. And that’s not cheating, it’s just science.