Diamond Deep Dives (3/18-4/6)
Welcome to Diamond Deep Dives, my weekly article covering all things MLB!
It’s the best time of the year, baseball season. While obviously the regular season technically started back on March 18th with the Tokyo Series between the Dodgers and the Cubs, I figured I would just throw that in with this article covering the first week and a half of the MLB season. In these deep dives I will cover everything from injuries, contracts, major developments in the sport, player performances, and standings updates. I hope you enjoy and plan on coming back next week!
Torpedo Bats
How else would it make sense to start this article other than addressing the biggest deal in baseball this week. If you follow the sport at all you have probably seen multiple times the mention of “torpedo” bats. So what exactly is a torpedo bat? The simple answer is it’s a bat designed specifically to have more wood concentrated in the barrel of the bat, so that the contact of the ball creates more force, equaling more power. Talk of torpedo bats really took off during the New York Yankees opening series against the Milwaukee Brewers where in just 3 games the Yankees hit 15 homers. The torpedo bats are most notably being used by Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Volpe, but others like Cody Bellinger and Austin Wells have been seen using them as well.
The funny thing is, this isn’t even the first time torpedo bats have been used. The idea of the new bat design came about from Aaron Leanhardt in 2022. Leanhardt was an assistant hitting coach in the Yankees Minor League system. Aaron had also earned a doctorate in physics from MIT, so you could say he was a pretty smart guy. A lot of players came to Aaron for help with hitting, and while doing so Aaron realized one major issue.
Many of the players he was speaking to were showing the area of the bat they most frequently make contact with, but that area wasn’t the fat part of the barrel, aka the traditional sweet spot. This is when he decided to form a design that moved more wood into the part of the bat closer to the handle where many of the players had shown they made the most contact.
Now I am sure you have heard about multiple teams putting in orders for these torpedo bats in hopes of finding the same success the Yankees have so far this season, but there is still one tiny advantage the Yankees have right now that most teams won’t be able to acquire until further in the future. Specifically in the cases of Jazz Chisholm, and Anthony Volpe, the torpedo bats they are using are built specifically to maximize their specific swings. The Yankees collected data on both players' swings that allowed them to build the torpedo bats custom to them.
The real question now is what’s next? The MLB has already declared that the bats fit the standard rule requirement so they are not very likely to be banned. Will more teams invest time into the analytics of each players’ swings in order to try and replicate what the Yankees have done? Only time will tell.
Player Spotlights
One of my favorite things about the sport of baseball is the variety the sport brings. Sure you have the big name guys like Aaron Judge, who through 9 games is batting .324 with 6 homers and 17 RBI, or someone like Nathan Eovaldi who threw a complete game shutout in a 1-0 win versus the Cincinnati Reds. Now don’t get me wrong these are special performances by special players, but I really want to try and cover the lesser known players who are off to a hot start this season.
Wilyer Abreu debuted with the Red Sox in 2023 and over 28 games he batted .316 with 2 homers and a .862 OPS. He would play in 132 games in 2024 and while he would show flashes of his true potential, his season overall was not anything crazy. He batted .253 with 15 homers and a .781 OPS. Wilyer really caught my attention in the opening series versus my favorite team, the Texas Rangers. In that 4 game series Wilyer went 7/10 with 2 homers, 6 RBI, and 5 walks. Of course as a fan, I thought wow of course this random middle of the lineup player is absolutely destroying my team, but Wilyer has not slowed down. Through 10 games this season, the Red Sox right fielder is batting .483 with 3 homers, 12 RBI, and a 1.492 OPS. While obviously there will be a regression over an entire 162 games season, Wilyer Abreu might finally be making the breakout Red Sox fans have been hoping for.
In a week consumed by so many stories about how offense driven the league is becoming, pitchers still continue to dominate so many facets of the game. Jesús Luzardo is off to a strong start with the Phillies, Paul Skenes continues to be Paul Skenes, and Garrett Crochet earned himself a big pay day. I really want to focus on a guy by the name of Spencer Schewllenbach. Schwellenbach was a rookie for the Braves in 2024 where in 21 games he held a solid 3.35 ERA with a 9.24 K/9. With an impressive rookie season behind him, Schwellenbach looked to continue his success coming into 2025, especially with the Braves losing both Charlie Morton and Max Fried this past offseason. Through 2 starts, Schwellenbach has yet to give up a run, has only allowed 3 hits, and has a 14/1 strikeout to walk ratio. The 24 year old is turning a lot of heads and may potentially be a dark horse for a Cy Young award this season. All I know is the Braves might need more than just Spencer to succeed though as they are 1-8 to start the season.
Standings Report
I feel as though it would be extremely boring and mundane to sit here and just list to you the records of every team each week so I really want to focus on who is on top at the moment and the biggest surprises, both good and bad. Let's start with how utterly insane division the NL West might be this year. The Giants are 8-1 and leading the division, which absolutely nobody saw coming, and the Dodgers are 9-2 with the Padres right on their heels at 8-2. The Diamondbacks are only 5-5, but you have to expect them to get it together with the amount of talent they have, and if they do then the race for the NL West title might be one for the ages.
Now for the complete opposite reason, here is why the AL Central might turn out to be just as exciting to watch. For years the AL Central has been known for its overall mediocrity and so far it has lived up to the name once again. The Detroit Tigers currently sit in 1st with a whopping 5-4 record with every other team in the division having a losing record thus far. While I do expect the central division to be a race between the Tigers, Royals, and Guardians, unless one of these teams really starts to separate itself from the pack, I don’t know if I can view any of them as true contenders.
Now over in the NL East the Phillies and Mets are currently battling for first place, and surely you would expect the Braves to be in the running right? Well so far they are not even close. The Braves are off to a 1-8 start as mentioned earlier, and so far the season has just been a disaster. They have a lot of ground to make up and they better make a change quickly or their season might be over as soon as it started.
My final biggest surprise is the Texas Rangers having an 8-2, no I am not bringing this up just to brag, but because of how they have achieved that 8-2 record. Coming into the season the Rangers were many peoples favorites to win the AL West, mainly due to the powerful lineup of hitters the Rangers had assembled. The biggest question mark for the Rangers was how well their pitching would be. Through 10 games the Texas Rangers currently have the lowest batting average in the league and a -1 run differential, but the Rangers pitching staff owns the lowest ERA in the American League. Just like everybody expected right?
Around the League
What a huge week it was for contract extensions! Young guys like Jackson Merrill, Garrett Crochet, and Kristian Campbell ink long term deals to remain with their teams for the foreseeable future. After a strong Spring Training and a solid start to the season, the Red Sox lock up their ace, Garrett Crochet, with a six-year $170 million dollar extension. They didn’t stop there though, as they also extended their exciting rookie Kristian Campbell to a eight-year $60 million extension. On that same Wednesday that Campbell signed his new contract, the San Diego Padres were busy locking up stud outfielder Jackson Merrill to a nine-year $135 million deal.
The young bucks weren’t the only ones collecting a new payday this week though, as veteran second baseman Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks signed a new extension with the club to remain with the team through the 2030 season.
This right here is why I wait until the last second of the MLB week to finish writing this article. Here I am getting ready to go to sleep at 11:19 pm when Jeff Passan breaks the news of the biggest contract extension we have seen in a while. The Toronto Blue Jays and 26 year old first-baseman, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., have agreed to a 14-year $500 contract extension. This extension will more than likely keep Guerrero Jr. with the Blue Jays for the rest of his career. A big congratulations to the young fella.
That’s all for my first Diamond Deep Dive of the year. I hope you enjoyed the read and if you have any feedback on anything else you would like me to cover related to the MLB, feel free to leave a comment below. I hope to see you all here again next week!