What Size Bat Does Aaron Judge Use

The man who regularly swings the biggest bat in baseball is 34 years old, a decade into his major league career, and has never hit more than than 14 dwelling house runs in a season. He opened the last two campaigns every bit a leadoff man, a singles-striking specialist.

Angels third baseman Yunel Escobar wields a 36-inch, 34-ounce slab of wood cut from a maple tree, a relic of an earlier era, a monstrosity marveled at past teammates and opponents alike.

"It is so long," Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons said, "I experience like I can hitting a pitch at the end of the other batter'due south box."

Precise records on the biggest bats in a big-league rack are not kept, thanks to the dozens of MLB-canonical manufacturers and players who typically switch their preferences several times a flavour. But employees of 3 prominent companies — Sam Bat, Sometime Hickory Bat Co. and Marucci — all said they had not shipped a bat of that length to whatever player in many years, if ever. An MLB sales representative at Trinity Bat Company, which sometimes supplies Escobar, said he is the simply one.

Almost all modern major leaguers apply bats that measure betwixt 33 and 34 ane/2 inches in length and weigh 31 to 33 1/2 ounces. Comparisons relevant to Escobar date dorsum many years.

A half-century ago, ballplayers routinely hit with bigger bats. Of note more recently, former Angels slugger Mo Vaughn deployed a 36-inch, 36-ounce bat and reportedly swung a 38-ounce model by accident for a few games in 2002. Russell Branyan, Khalil Greene, and Jose Canseco would occasionally use bats as long as 36 inches and heavy as 34 ounces.

Escobar's experiment began sometime in the spring of 2013 with the Tampa Bay Rays. He was struggling with an average of nearly .200 and repeatedly hit balls off of the end of his bat when manager Joe Maddon dug up a 35 one/two-inch, 34-ounce batting practise bat and handed it to his shortstop.

"Try this in BP," Maddon told Escobar, convinced his hands were strong enough to comport it through the zone in a timely mode.

For weeks Escobar did, exclusively left-handed, with the goal of building force in his left hand. Maddon said he'd need that when he brought the bat to his natural right-handed side.

"When the bat's super-heavy, this is the hand that doesn't have the force," Escobar said through interpreter Diego Lopez while holding up his left hand. "Past switching and batting the other side, I was strengthening my bottom mitt."

On June 20, 2013, Escobar used the bat in a game for the kickoff time, the black-lacquered wood towering above his head at Yankee Stadium. He boomed a domicile run to straightaway middle field and grinned at Maddon as he touched third base.

Escobar said he soon started to special order 36-inch bats from several manufacturers, and of late he has carried but 35 ane/2- and 36-inch bats.

"Now, I'one thousand thinking 37," Escobar said.

To those inclined to find entertainment in athletics, Escobar's actions on the field incessantly amuse.

He runs with an aura of nonchalance. When he catches pop fouls, he holds the ball high in the air, not bothering to fake a throw. When he slides into second base of operations afterward stroking a baseball game into the gap, he stretches his hands broad, pronouncing himself safe.

There may not be another major leaguer whose actions so controvert long-established norms. Escobar is unafraid to exist different.

Angels' Yunel Escobar poses for a portrait with his bat during Angels Photo Day at Tempe Diablo Stadium on February 21, 2017 in Tempe, Ariz.

It is so long. I experience like I can hitting a pitch at the end of the other batter's box

— Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons

A long-ago Cuban defector, he has been traded equally many times as any active player, forth the fashion developing a reputation as a difficult teammate. He has his fans in the Angels' clubhouse, teammates who admire the simplicity of his swing and his consistency.

He does not utilise the bat for stylistic purposes. He believes that its size allows him to gainsay the sport'southward increasing velocity better than the alternatives. All he needs to do to get a hit is run across the ball in transit. And he believes others would exist well-served by copying his approach.

"I recommend it to everybody, and everybody says I'm crazy," he said. "They're using it in practice, only they don't have the confidence to use it in the game. I'm pretty sure the day they try information technology in a game, they'll never change dorsum."

Simmons, Cameron Maybin and Danny Espinosa are among the Angels who have tried the bat. Maybin, like Escobar a tall, sinewy correct-handed batter, swings information technology every mean solar day in batting do.

"But I'm mode too scared to take it up at that place in the game," Maybin said.

The size of Escobar's bat has even inspired mythology. Several Angels cite a story in which Atlanta Braves coaches handed him the massive wood when he was outset called upwards, apropos of nothing, and said, "Swing this."

Today's players are wedded to a uniform length and weight because they grew up using uniform aluminum bats, which were introduced in the 1970s.

"I remember a lot of it is just how we're brought upwardly," Angels utilityman Cliff Pennington said. "I recollect more of united states could swing — maybe non that large — simply, like, something closer to that."

It's common for batters to swing bats an ounce or so heavier during batting practice, an thought that Angels correct-hander Jesse Chavez compared to the weighted-ball programs for pitchers that have become popular in recent years.

"That'south what we equate it to," Chavez said. "Merely he actually uses information technology in a game. That concept seems to work and it'due south pretty fun to spotter, swinging that large of a bat. His timing'south just then good with it that it wouldn't be beneficial for him to go any smaller."

Chavez drew a parallel between Escobar's bat and Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton's strength.

"Say Stanton gets jammed," Chavez said. "He'south gigantic and strong, and he'southward still able to muscle it through the infield. In [Escobar'due south] case, I call back the bat does like a quarter of the piece of work. That heaviness of the bat is able to get it through for a knock, rather than, if information technology was normal size, it's an out."

At an age when most hitters are declining, Escobar has improved his offensive skills. Since that 2013 night in New York, he has hit .289, compared to .279 before. His on-base-plus-slugging percentage has been greater than the league average in each of the last 3 seasons.

His results against loftier-velocity offerings have been even better. According to Statcast data compiled on baseballsavant.com, Escobar has striking .406 on pitches clocked at 96 mph or higher in the last two seasons, eighth-best among 284 hitters who accept put 25 or more than such pitches into play.

"The faster the bullpen throws the ball, the better for me," Escobar said. "Yous don't accept to be that potent. The bat itself is going to propel the ball."

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura