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As the torpedo bat craze stormed Major League Baseball to start the 2025 season, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge were both asked about making the switch. “I’m very satisfied with my current bat,” Ohtani told the Japanese press after an April walk-off home run.
“What I did the past couple of seasons speaks for itself,” Judge said the morning after the Yankees hit a franchise-record nine home runs, including three by the captain himself. “Why try to change something if you have something that’s working?”
Turns out the sport’s two reigning MVPs and biggest stars use the same bat brand owned by Yoenis Céspedes, who spent nine seasons in MLB and knows a bit about hitting dingers, as a two-time Home Run Derby champion.
“2012 me would’ve just laughed,” Céspedes said in an interview when asked about being an entrepreneur after just defecting from Cuba. “I was focused on helping the A’s win. Owning a bat company? Then buying another one? A glove company too? That would’ve sounded crazy, but it is a beautiful thing. It means everything to me now.”
Chandler doesn’t have the name recognition of MLB’s official bat brands, Victus and Marucci, or Louisville Slugger, which was the official provider between 1997 and 2024. But MLB players know Chandler.
“Our business is really skewed towards the professional athlete, and that is inherent in the DNA of Chandler Bats,” Ben Chase, Chandler Bats CEO, said in a phone interview. More than 60% of their business is from people who get paid to play baseball, Chase said, adding that the company prides itself on meeting the customization needs of players when it comes to knobs, weights, cup depths and cup diameters.
Chandler’s MLB player market share was 10.4% on opening day, according to Bat Digest. It ranked fourth behind Victus (27.8%), Marucci (20.4%) and Louisville Slugger (15.2%).
Still, fourth is a miracle. “Chandler bats, the brand, effectively went under, and we had to rebuild everything from the ground up,” Chase said. “What good is a bat that you can’t get out the door?”
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