WARMINGTON: Whether Trump likes it or not, some hot new torpedo bats are Canadian

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Perhaps, no one should tell President Donald Trump, but some of those torpedo bats making a splash in Major League Baseball might be considered cross-border imports.

The makers of these hot new torpedo bats are not only swinging for the fences but sending baseballs flying across the border from Quebec into the United States.

It’s safe to say this tiny baseball B45 bat company not only hit a major-league grand slam but they have done it in both of Canada’s official languages — primarily with Canadian yellow birch wood harvested mostly in Quebec.

People are going batty over these odd-looking baseball bats that some believe offer players more power from the plate.

And some of these torpedo bats are being manufactured in Canada. While some of the yellow birch — Quebec’s official trees — are harvested are in Maine, near the Quebec border, most are Canadian.

“This is an all-Canadian operation,” said Marie-Pier Gosselin, general manager of B45 Baseball in Quebec City.

Proudly.

The motto and slogan of their company, which is partially owned by former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher and Quebec product Eric Gagne, is “First to believe.” And believe they did when MIT physicist Aaron Leanhardt came to them with an idea to change a bat’s barrel — at the point where it’s the fattest —  so the ball explodes off the bat.

Time will tell. So far these torpedo bats have been the talk of the first week of the 2025 major-league season where they’ve been used by players to hit 20 home runs so far.

“We got on board right away and started making them about a year ago,” said Gosselin. “We had no idea all of this would happen.”

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But it did fit in well with their mission statement which is “to remain the leader in the manufacturing of baseball bats and equipment recognized for their absolute quality and innovation for both professional and amateur players.”

These torpedo bats are part of that innovation. With three American competitors also in the race for the future, B45 is not the only company making them. But the company was among the first and “we are the only company using yellow birch,” said Gosselin.

They have more major league players using their torpedo bats than they have people making them.

“We have 10 employees,” she said. “We have 12 players using them so far.”

Both may grow.

“We have had 35 orders come from players so pretty soon there will be 50 players using them.”

Current Toronto Blue Jays hitter Davis Schneider is one of them.

“Who doesn’t love a big barrel,” No. 36 told Sportsnet, adding it feels like swinging any other bat.

Photographer Ernest Dorozsuk took some cool images of Schneider swinging the B45 bat, but so far, Schneider hasn’t hit a dinger with a torpedo.

Either way, it’s an exciting time for this cool little group swinging above their weight.

“Back in 2004, forest engineers from Quebec City, Canada, hardly believed that yellow birch would make exceptional baseball bats” but Gosselin said they “joined their knowledge with the experience of professional baseball players to handcraft the first ever bat made out of yellow birch, a wood that possesses extraordinary physical characteristics.”

While there may be issues ahead — Trump’s trade war or a possible ban of torpedo bats — Gosselin doesn’t think either will stop their growth as there are players in many markets looking for their bats. It reminds one of the curved hockey stick craze of Chicago Black Hawks legends Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull back in the 1960s.

Those sticks changed the game of hockey, and this new bat will do the same for baseball. Some are saying it’s the biggest innovation to the game in 100 years.

The rest is history, as they help write a new chapter for America’s pastime by hitting some big home runs of their own.