Disclaimer: This site uses affiliate links. Learn More.
By Bat Digest
Updated August 10, 2023
It took me a few seconds to realize what was going on and then it hit me: My goodness, the freaking handle is rotating around the bat on purpose. See for yourself:
In theory, a rotating handle on the bottom hand would allow two things to happen: A massive problem in little league and high school is young batters over-gripping the bat. When the bat is gripped more in our palms than our fingers it makes a proper swinging motion, by getting our hands inside the ball, very difficult. A rotating handle on the bottom hand should allow a hitter's wrists to have more say in the trajectory of the bat despite any over-gripping. If the bottom part of the handle can be rotated during the swing it may allow for a hitter to both get the barrel of the bat in the zone faster and keep it there for longer. At impressive levels of baseball, keeping your barrel in the zone for the longest possible time is very much a function of solid mechanics. At little league and high school levels, however, it may work as encouragement when player transitions into the big time.
This bat, known well now as the Easton Mako Torq (not Torque) is real and is for sale. It comes in a handful of different sizes: BBCOR (BB15MKT) 31 to 34 inches; 2 1/4 Youth Barrel drop 10 (YB15MKT); Senior League 2 5/8 drop 5 and drop 8 (SL15MKT5T, SL15MKT8T).
But before you drop a couple years worth of lawn mowing money on a baseball bat, you should probably ask a more obvious question: Why would a bat ever need to have a spinning handle?