Which Cardinal has been using a ‘Torpedo Bat’ since 2021? Since opening day, the biggest story for Major League Baseball is the Torpedo Bat. But before players were dialing up physicists like they were placing DoorDash orders, Brendan Donovan was already deep in the lab. Only his lab was the Old Hickory Bat Company, and his experiments were all about feel, balance, and good old-fashioned contact.
Not Quite a Torpedo Bat, but Close
Back in 2020 and 2021, while most players were swinging stock models, Donovan was thinking bigger. Or, well, denser. He was on a mission: shift the sweet spot to match where he hits the ball. Alongside the tech minds at Old Hickory, Donovan got to work on a bat that wasn’t quite a torpedo but definitely wasn’t traditional either. The barrel? Beefed up exactly where he makes contact. The knob? Flared. The cupping at the end? Deep enough to practically store sunflower seeds.
“I switched full-go to this model back in 2021, and I’ve used it ever since,” Brendan Donovan said, after launching a homer at Busch Stadium using one of his custom Old Hickory bats. It’s got an extended barrel and a unique weight distribution that other players raise an eyebrow at—until they take a swing. “Most of them like it because of how balanced it is.”
And now, with “torpedo bats” making waves thanks to the Yankees’ 15-homer barrage to start the season, Brendan Donovan’s ahead-of-his-time modifications are suddenly right on trend. But his journey wasn’t hype-driven. It was trial and error plus long talks with bat makers in Tennessee. Resulting in a bat still within MLB’s legal limits—just optimized for him.
Thanks to Covid
In 2020, with no minor league season due to COVID, Donovan got to work behind the scenes. By 2022, he was in the big leagues, racking up a Gold Glove and posting a .281 average. In 2023, he ramped up his power—11 homers in 95 games—before surgery shut him down. Then came a 2024 campaign where he led Cardinals regulars in hits, doubles, average, and OBP.
The bat, he says, played a key role.
Turns out, the future of hitting might’ve started not in a lab, but in a quiet visit to a bat shop in Tennessee.
But is it enough to get the fans to show up at Busch Stadium?
