NEW YORK (AP) — Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton said he'll continue using a torpedo bat whenever he returns from pain in both elbows, but also declined to say whether he thought using the new model might have caused his injury.
Last season Stanton began using the unique bats that feature more wood lower down the barrel closer to the label, shaped a little like a bowling pin. During spring training, he seemed to hint that using the different bats could have caused pain, telling reporters, “probably some bat adjustments," before later adding he didn't know why his injury occurred.
“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said Tuesday before New York opened a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. “So if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”
The torpedo bats made national headlines after Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells used them while combining to hit nine of New York’s 15 homers in its season-opening sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers.
The bats were developed by Aaron Leonhardt, a former Yankees front-office staffer and MIT physicist now working for the Miami Marlins. On Monday, before the Marlins faced the New York Mets, Leonhardt said the origin of the bats dates to 2023 but added any success with them was due to the talented players swinging them.
“It makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? It’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hand.”
Stanton is still feeling pain and has started hitting with the Trajekt machine that simulates high velocity and live pitching, but his rehab is in the early stages. The 35-year-old designated hitter expects to need a minor league rehab assignment after missing all of spring training and not swinging a bat since January.
“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. It will just depend on timing, really.”
Stanton hit .273 with seven homers and 16 RBIs during the 2024 postseason to help the Yankees reach their first World Series since 2009. After reporting to camp this year, he said on Feb. 17 that he hadn't swung a bat in three or four weeks because of elbow pain. He underwent three rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections.
Stanton batted .233 with 27 homers and 72 RBIs while playing 114 regular-season games last year, his season interrupted by a strained left hamstring that sidelined him between June 22 and July 29.
He signed a then-record $325 million, 13-year contract with the Marlins ahead of the 2015 season and had 59 homers and 132 RBIs in 2017, winning the NL MVP award. He was acquired by the Yankees that December and hit 38 homers with 100 RBIs in his first season with New York.
Stanton missed 266 of 708 games over the next five seasons because of a series of injuries that included strains of right biceps, right knee, left hamstring (twice) and left quadriceps along with right ankle inflammation and left Achilles tendinitis.
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New York Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton looks out from the dugout during an exhibition baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Tuesday, March 25, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza (AP) — Israeli strikes killed more than a dozen people in the Gaza Strip early Friday, as Israel sent more ground troops into the Palestinian territory to ramp up its offensive against Hamas.
At least 17 people, some from the same family, were killed after an airstrike hit the southern city of Khan Younis, according to hospital staff. Hours later, people were still searching through the rubble, looking for survivors.
The attack follows days of Israeli strikes, which have killed at least 100 people, as it intensifies operations, intended to pressure Hamas to release its hostages. On Friday, Israel said it had begun ground activity in northern Gaza, in order to expand its security zone.
Israel’s military had issued sweeping evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza before expected ground operations. The U.N. humanitarian office said around 280,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel ended the ceasefire with Hamas last month.
In recent days, Israel's vowed to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor across it.
To pressure Hamas, Israel has imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime. Israel said earlier this week that enough food had entered Gaza during a six-week truce to sustain the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians for a long time.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout from Gaza. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory.
The predawn strike on Friday hit a three-story building. In addition to the dead, the attack wounded at least 16 people from the same family. Associated Press reporters saw bodies being carried out in blankets, while others searched for people trapped under the rubble and collected charred remains.
“We don’t know how to collect them and how to bury them. We don’t know whose remains these are. They were burned and dismembered,” said Ismail Al-Aqqad, whose brother died in the strike, as well as his brother’s family.
On Thursday, more than 30 bodies, including women and children, were taken to hospitals in and around Khan Younis, according to hospital staff.
Israel said Friday that it had killed a top Hamas commander in a strike in Lebanon’s coastal city of Sidon. Israel said that Hassan Farhat was a commander of Hamas’ western area in Lebanon and that he was responsible for numerous attacks against Israel, including one in February 2024, which killed an Israeli soldier and injured others.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals. Israel rescued eight living hostages and has recovered dozens of bodies.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as part of Israel's offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. The ministry says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has left most of Gaza in ruins, and at its height displaced around 90% of the population.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Palestinians grieve over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Relatives mourn the body of Ashraf Al Aqqad, who was killed in an Israeli army strike, before his burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners pray over the body of a woman killed in an Israeli army strike, before her burial at the hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians who were injured in an Israeli airstrike, are brought for a treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A young Palestinian girl who was injured in an Israeli airstrike, is brought for a treatment at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Smoke rises after an explosion in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Yamama Jundia, 13, injured in an Israeli airstrike, grieves alongside others over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in the same strike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
