Picture this: A beloved baseball squad gets absolutely demolished right out of the gate in a high-profile series, sparking an unexpected national obsession—and then flips the script to charge all the way to the National League Championship Series. It's a tale of humiliation turning into triumph, and for the Milwaukee Brewers, it's all too real. But here's where it gets controversial: Was their rough start just a fluke, or did it expose deeper cracks in baseball's evolving dynamics? Stick around, because this story reveals how a single bad weekend can ignite debates about innovation, fairness, and what really swings a game.
Six months down the line, the term 'torpedo bats' still draws chuckles and eye-rolls from the Milwaukee Brewers players and staff. As they gear up for the NLCS, that early-season debacle feels like a distant memory, but it started it all.
'It kicked off in New York, and we got hammered,' recalled seasoned hurler Brandon Woodruff, reflecting on their disastrous opening.
Reserve infielder Jake Bauers likened it to a prizefighter stepping into the ring only to get floored instantly in the first punch. 'It's like taking a straight shot to the jaw right at the bell,' he said.
Even owner Mark Attanasio couldn't help but grin about it now. 'Looking back, it's turned into quite the punchline,' he admitted.
That fateful opening weekend saw the Brewers endure 27 grueling innings at Yankee Stadium, where their pitchers surrendered 36 runs and a staggering 15 homers. It was a fireworks display of epic proportions, prompting everyone to ask: What on earth was happening? The culprit, it seemed, was the unique design of the bats used by some Yankees players, including shortstop Anthony Volpe. These 'torpedo' bats were engineered with the heaviest materials concentrated at the sweet spot where each hitter typically connects with the ball—think of it as optimizing the bat's weight distribution for maximum power, much like how a swimmer's body is streamlined for speed in water.
This breakthrough excited sluggers everywhere, offering a glimmer of hope in a pitcher's paradise where high-velocity throws and nasty spins have made home runs rarer than ever. Suddenly, players across Major League Baseball were clamoring for these specialized sticks. The craze even spilled over to amateur leagues, with manufacturers like Marucci, Chandler, Louisville Slugger, and Rawlings rushing to sell them to the public. A Chandler rep noted 'unprecedented sales across every outlet' for these novelty items.
And who do they have to thank for boosting their bottom line? The Brewers themselves. When quizzed about whether the team might seek a 'finder's fee' from bat makers for the windfall, Attanasio let out a hearty laugh. Fresh off their thrilling victory over the Chicago Cubs and a matchup against the Los Angeles Dodgers looming, he jokingly scanned the field for team president Rick Schlesinger. 'We ought to set up an intro,' he quipped. 'That could be lucrative!'
Back then, though, nobody was in a joking mood. Post-that weekend, the outlook for the 2025 Brewers looked bleak. They'd dealt away their star closer, Devin Williams, a two-time All-Star, and hadn't landed any big free-agent splashes. Projections from FanGraphs gave them just a 35.4% chance of making the playoffs. It felt like the end of an era for a franchise that had ridden pitching prowess to success.
For years, Milwaukee's identity was built on its hurlers, boasting the fifth-lowest ERA in the majors even after shipping out Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes in 2024. But this season opened with doubts. After a tough loss on Opening Day, starter Nestor Cortes gave up five round-trippers in a 20-9 rout, and Aaron Civale followed with three more in a 12-3 thrashing.
The team shrugged it off as a Bronx anomaly, while the rest of baseball buzzed about the torpedoes. Some Brewers found the hype grating. 'It became this huge media circus for no good reason,' said reliever Jared Koenig. Meanwhile, their own batters were envious. 'The Yankees had them, and soon everyone else did too,' Woodruff noted. 'We kept thinking, "Hey, we're not flush with cash like big markets, but can we at least get our guys some of these?"'
Yet, in the grand scheme, these bats didn't revolutionize the game. League batting averages ticked up slightly to .245 in 2025 from .243 the year before, but in an age of blistering pitches and wicked curves, even fancy equipment has limits.
'We all tried ordering a few just to check them out,' Bauers shared. 'After some batting practice swings and live at-bats, it clicked—they weren't the magic fix.'
And this is the part most people miss: How the Brewers turned things around offers a masterclass in resilience and adaptation. Their secret? Constant roster shuffling. They didn't rest on their laurels; when superior prospects bubbled up from the minors, they promoted them without hesitation. When Civale, frustrated by a bullpen shift in June due to his 4.91 ERA, asked to be traded, GM Matt Arnold swung a deal for first baseman Andrew Vaughn, who delivered the walk-off homer in Game 5 against the Cubs.
The shift to the bullpen stemmed from Arnold's tweaks for better balance. In April, Milwaukee snagged Quinn Priester—a top pick from 2019 stuck in the Boston Red Sox minors—with a competitive-balance draft choice. They coached him to lean on his two-seam sinker for weak grounders, and he dazzled with a 3.32 ERA over 157 1/3 innings.
With Priester in the rotation, space opened for rookie fireballer Jacob Misiorowski, whose 104 mph heater earned his spot. Vaughn, post-Civale trade, racked up an .869 OPS in the regular season and two playoff homers this October.
Vaughn never played alongside Cortes, whom Milwaukee acquired in a winter deal with the Yankees for Williams, along with third baseman Caleb Durbin. Durbin stuck as a starter, but Cortes flopped—he hurt his elbow after two outings and sat out four months. They flipped him to the San Diego Padres at the deadline for utility outfielder Brandon Lockridge.
By summer, Milwaukee was on fire, chasing the best record in baseball. Attanasio reminisced about a May highlight: Jackson Chourio's leaping snag at the center-field fence. 'A lot of us in ops thought that one play could be the turning point if things shifted,' he recalled.
The Brewers eked out just one losing month—March, including that Yankee nightmare. Manager Pat Murphy urged learning from it, and Bauers reflected after bouncing back from a 6-0 Game 4 loss to the Cubs: 'Without that early drubbing, would we have had the grit to rally from Wrigley and clinch Game 5? It erased any uncertainty about our comeback ability and showed us our true team spirit.'
But here's where the debate heats up: Are torpedo bats a genuine equalizer in a pitcher-dominated sport, or just hype that distracts from fundamentals like training and strategy? Do teams like Milwaukee prove that adaptation and roster flexibility trump flashy gadgets? And should MLB regulate bat designs to keep things fair—or is innovation part of the fun?
What do you think, fans? Do you side with the Brewers' comeback story as a triumph of grit, or does the torpedo craze represent a slippery slope for the game's balance? Share your takes in the comments—agreement or disagreement, we're all ears!
