A recent video that surfaced on social media might have some Yankees fans wondering if Cody Bellinger has been using a bat with a barrel that’s more of a square shape this spring.
That might sound silly, but the clip, posted by a user who goes by “Fuzzy,” has more than 1 million views on TikTok and over half a million on YouTube. On the latter platform, the video is titled, “he’s using a SQUARE bat??”
Some comments there are hundreds in total — below the video state that the lumber should be illegal and that Bellinger has been cheating.
“That is a brand-new bat,” a voiceover states as the video shows a still image of Bellinger’s bat being used on a home run swing. “I’ve never really seen a bat look like a square or a hexagon where it’s thick towards the middle and then, all of a sudden, it tapers off towards the end.”
Bellinger’s response?
“I have a normal bat,” the outfielder told the Daily News as he showed off several bats by his locker. “Not a square. It’s pretty round.”
Bellinger laughed off the video, which he had heard about but not seen until he spoke to The News. He also said it got one thing right: he has been using a new bat this spring.
He’s actually been using three new models that have more weight distributed toward the handle end of the bats than he’s previously been accustomed to. He feels these new bats, different in overall weight, are more balanced from end to end.
“There’s ways to move the weight of the bat. Some guys like top heavy, some guys like hand-loaded bats,” Bellinger said. “You just gotta find a bat that feels good, that kind of moves with you.
“I’m a believer in swinging different things.”
Bellinger said that big league hitters have put a greater emphasis on the weight distribution of their bats over the last three or four years. Yankees hitting coach James Rowson has noticed that as well.
“Some guys are feeling like they want to balance the bat so that it works for them,” Rowson said. “So for years, you always changed your models. But now guys are balancing the bat in a way that they feel like the weight is distributed the right way.”
This shifting approach has come with some new designs. For example, there are now bats with “puck knobs,” which are meant to counterbalance the weight of the barrel. Bellinger’s new bats, meanwhile, look a little sleeker near the barrel to the naked eye, which may have contributed to the squarish form the wood appeared to take in the aforementioned video.
“You see these golfers, they’re very into their clubs,” Bellinger said. “As baseball players, it’s like why are we just picking up a bat and saying, ‘Oh, this feels good?’ Why is there no science behind anything here?
“You can test your swing path, you can test your exit velocity. There’s data behind everything now. You see it on the pitching side with Trackman. On the hitting side, you see it with a bunch of different things, like Blast Motion [bat sensors] or something like that.”
Bellinger’s new bats have worked well for him, as the Yankees’ expected No. 3 hitter ended spring training slashing .400/.444/.680 with five doubles, three homers and seven RBI.
square bat bellinger pic.twitter.com/K27o8AzpMz
— shawn (@possiblyimshawn) March 19, 2025
Bellinger, a left-handed swinger, also saw his exit velocity go from 87.8 mph last season to 93.5 mph this spring, while his bat speed increased from 69 mph to 70.2 mph. Bellinger’s 90th Percentile Exit Velocity, a useful predictor when looking at small samples, also went up by about 3 mph.
Acquired in a trade with the Cubs over the offseason, Bellinger said his new bats may have something to do with those improved metrics and strong exhibition numbers. But as Opening Day approaches, he also just really likes where his mechanics are at as he prepares to take advantage of Yankee Stadium’s short right field porch.
“I think it helps,” Bellinger said of his new tools. “But I do think that my swing is in a better spot right now than it was last year.”