PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — It was almost a year ago that torpedo bats caught the baseball world by storm, a 72-hour craze that generated some outrageous reactions along the way.
Except unlike the best of fads, the torpedo bats never actually went away, only the noise around them died down.
J.C. Escarra dabbled with one early last season, but did not see immediate results, so he went back to using his regular bat.
But with some help from the Yankees’ analytics department, the catcher has been using one again this spring — a heavier Aaron Judge model that they had turned into a torpedo bat, specifically designed to fit his swing — and strong results have followed.
The latest came on Tuesday, when Escarra collected a three-hit day, including crushing a 438-foot homer off Rays starter Ryan Pepiot in a 3-2 win at Charlotte Sports Park.
“I think it has to be the torpedo bats,” said Escarra, who also threw out a runner trying to steal second. “My boy Zac [Fieroh, the club’s manager of analytics and implementation in quantitative analysis] in the analytic hitting department, he’s doing a great job with my bats. I bought into the torpedo bats and maybe it’s that. Maybe it’s not, but I like to think so.
“This year, I said I’m going to live and die by this bat.”
The early returns have been encouraging, specifically in how hard Escarra is hitting the ball more consistently. His homer on Tuesday came off the bat at 108.4 mph, his second-highest exit velocity of the spring, behind only his first home run on Feb. 27 that came off the bat at 109.6 mph — both higher than his regular-season career-high of 107.1 mph. He came into Tuesday with an average exit velocity of 94.1 mph this spring, up from the 90.8 mph he averaged in his first season as a big leaguer.
That has only reinforced what Aaron Boone and the Yankees believe about Escarra, who is likely to make the club as its traditional backup catcher behind Austin Wells.
“J.C. is a really good player — I tell him this, too — he just hasn’t gotten a chance yet,” Boone said.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s a top-half-of-the-league catcher. … He can play, man.”
Last season, after winning over the fan base as the former Uber driver who made the team out of camp, Escarra hit .202 with two home runs and a .629 OPS in sporadic playing time — totaling 40 games and 98 plate appearances.
He was more impactful behind the plate, with above-average framing metrics, but was relegated to Triple-A by the second half of the season as Ben Rice took on more catching duties to keep his bat in the lineup.
It remains to be seen how much playing time Escarra will get this season with Rice now the starting first baseman but a crowded bench picture, though he is giving himself a chance to make a bigger impact with his bat — torpedo bat, to be specific.
“I found one that feels comfortable and they made it into how my swing works,” he said. “So I’m seeing it through. I like to think it gives me a little bit of an edge.
“It gives me the biggest barrel that I can use, so maybe that pitch I used to miss, now I’m foul-tipping it and giving me another chance to hit. Maybe I just missed it and then the next one I hit it a little better. It’s all about the small advantages it gives me. If it is proven that it helps me, then I’m going to see it through and keep using it.”
As for his defense, Escarra said getting better at throwing runners out has been a point of emphasis. He only caught one runner stealing on 20 attempts last season, and the Yankees overall had the 10th-lowest caught stealing percentage at 20.3 percent (26-for-128).
All of his work this spring is making sure he is ready to go when called upon.
“I know my role, and I’m going to try to be the best at my role,” Escarra said. “Whatever the team needs, I’m going to be ready for it.”