MLB opening weekend takeaways: New bats, Padres' hot start, more - ESPN

The first weekend of the 2025 MLB season is in the books — and what a wild few days of action it was across the majors.

We saw the Los Angeles Angels establish a new low when they used a position player to pitch on Opening Day. Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Nick Gonzales broke his ankle while hitting a home run. Nestor Cortes gave up three home runs on his first three pitches of the season. The San Francisco Giants tied a record by starting their 19th consecutive different left fielder on Opening Day in Heliot Ramos. Rafael Devers became the first player to strike out 10 times in the first three games of a season.

Whew. OK, there was plenty of good stuff as well: Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts, MacKenzie Gore, Tyler O'Neill homering on Opening Day for the sixth year in a row, Griffin Conine's catch, Brenton Doyle playing center field.

What did we learn? Here are 12 initial takeaways from opening weekend.

We have our first big story of the season: the new «torpedo»-shaped bats that multiple New York Yankees players are using, which have more wood in the contact area of the bat and are slightly thinner at the top. The concept is to shift the center of mass to create a larger sweet spot and, in theory, produce more bat speed. And yes — these new bats are legal under MLB specifications.

Among the Yankees using them: Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells. With the torpedo bats in hand, the Yankees swept three games against the Brewers, mashing a team-record nine home runs Saturday — one short of the MLB record — and 15 over the three games. The Yankees' bats were designed by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-trained physicist and former Yankees staffer who now works for the Miami Marlins.

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