Astros utility man Mauricio Dubon tries torpedo bat

HOUSTON – Torpedo bats have taken the baseball world by storm in the beginning of the 2025 season. The Astros’ Mauricio Dubon is the latest big leaguer to try the new bats.

Numerous teams and players have called their respective bat companies for a shipment to experiment with the torpedo-shaped bats.

In the Astros’ last homestand, Houston Astros manager Joe Espada mentioned the team would start working with torpedo bats during the Angels’ series.

A torpedo bat is not your typical major league bat. The major difference is where the sweet spot, which is also known as the barrel, is located. Bat companies started to make that part of the bat bigger. Astros utility man Mauricio Dubon wanted to check out the bat for himself and see what the hype was all about.

Tucci Lumber Bats, which makes Dubon’s bats, sent him a torpedo bat to use.

“I just got it out of the box,” Dubon said Saturday. “So we’ll see how it goes. I think it’s going to help just because I hit a lot of balls where they put the barrel on it. So we’ll see how it goes. I mean it’s something new to try. Why not?

“Worst case scenario I go back to the old ones.”

Mauricio Dubon searches for spark

Dubon is off to a slow start this season. The native of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, is hitting .059 with only one hit in 17 at-bats. Moreover, Dubon has a .111 on-base percentage, .229 OPS, and a 0.0 barrel percentage.

Players like Jazz Chisolm Jr., Francisco Lindor, Elly De La Cruz, Yandy Diaz, and others have used the bat in a game. Other players have tried out the torpedo bat during batting practice and had mixed opinions about it.

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Social media influencers such as King of JUCO and The Baseball Bat Bros have also got their hands on the bat.

Astros catcher Yainer Diaz was talking to Dubon about the latest innovation during batting practice Saturday evening.

Dubon let Diaz try his bat out during BP. Diaz took a couple of swings and finished his round. The Dominican slugger didn’t like the model of Dubon’s bat, but he will have a model of his own coming soon to the clubhouse.

“Some people think like it makes the ball go further, and it doesn’t,” Dubon said. “It’s just a little bit of change in the barrel.

“But, like I said, we’ll see how it goes. I mean there were some balls that I put my hands inside and it ended up carrying a little bit more just cause it ended up hitting the barrel.”

The Gold Glover is enjoying the torpedo bat so far. Dubon will continue to work with it during batting practice and possibly become the first Astros player to debut the bat in a game.

“If it (has) hits, it’s a great bat,” he said. “If it doesn’t, I’ll throw it away.”