Why some Yankees switched to eye-opening torpedo bat shape and the brainchild behind it

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.Is it the bat or the confidence that a bat that looks like a torpedo gives?Anthony Volpe isn’t quite sure just yet, but after hitting two home runs in his first two games of the season with the new bat that a former Yankees analyst helped create, the shortstop isn’t changing a thing.Volpe is one of about five Yankees who are using the new torpedo bat, in which more wood (and therefore mass) is closer to the label of the bat than the typical barrel.

The new dimensions do not violate Major League Baseball’s official rules or the Bat Supplier Regulations, and they are not for everyone — like Aaron Judge, who indicated Sunday morning he has little interest in trying it.But the early returns have been promising.“So far, so good,” Volpe said Sunday morning.“It’s cool to look down at and the concept makes so much sense.

I know I’m bought in.The bigger you can have the barrel where you’re going to hit the ball makes sense to me.“It’s probably just placebo,” Volpe added with a grin.

“A lot of it is looking up at your bat and you see how big the barrel is.But it’s exciting.

I think any .001 percent mentally that can give you confidence helps.”Jazz Chisholm Jr.and Cody Bellinger are among the other Yankees who are using the torpedo bat.

Bellinger said the Cubs were swinging with it in batting practice last season, but never used it in a game because it did not yet feel right and the Yankees seem to have had more advancements with it.“I think the benefit for me is I like the weight distribution personally,” Bellinger said.“The weight’s closer to my hands, so I feel as if it’s lighter in a way.

So that for me was the biggest benefit.And then obviously the bigger the sweet spot, the bigger the margin for error.”Volpe echoed that sentiment.“We were all just talking and saying, if it can he...