MIT physicist Aaron Leanhardt has been credited with creating the torpedo bats. Leanhardt previously served as a hitting analyst with the Yankees before he joined the Miami Marlins as a field coordinator in the offseason.

After the Yankees hit nine home runs Saturday, thanks in part to their funky-shaped bats, the astrophysicist and Yankee fan told CNN 'somebody should have invented this decades ago.' A legendary Stanford physicist is way ahead of him.

Reds' superstar Elly De La Cruz became the latest MLB player to smash a home run with a torpedo bat, but what is it? And are the bats legal?

By now, you’ve probably heard about baseball’s greatest innovation since the curveball: MLB’s new “torpedo” bat, the reconfigured bat that moves the barrel — or the sweet spot — closer to the handle, seemingly turning even the most meager of hitters into home run machines.

Will there be a significant offensive surge in baseball now that hitters across the league want their hands on the bats? Maybe, but not anytime soon.

The torpedo bat became the talk of baseball after the New York Yankees hit 15 home runs — including nine on Saturday — over three games against the Milwaukee Brewers. The bats, true to the name, feature a torpedo-like shape and are custom-made, designed to ensure the densest part of the bat is where a hitter makes the most contact.

Most Diamondbacks hitters saw the torpedo bats and dismissed them. They are taking a closer look as the team prepares to face the New York Yankees.

Players are intrigued. Reds star Elly De La Cruz tried it Monday and crushed the ball. One bat-maker contends Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton’s seven-HR barrage in last year’s playoffs was with a torpedo. The early version of the backstory is amazing: An MIT physicist-turned-baseball coach, Aaron Leanhardt, made an observation:

Hitting coach Kevin Long says the team will try to get “a better understanding of the whole science” behind the bat craze that is sweeping baseball.