The bat, man: Cardinals Goldschmidt swings new lab-designed, custom-crafted bat worth the weight (2024)

JUPITER, Fla. — He first met his trusted companions for every big-league at-bat in the minors.

One arrived in a shipment of various baseball bat models for him to test-drive, and there was something about how it fit in his fists, how balanced it felt when he brandished it, and, of course, how it produced at the plate. Once Paul Goldschmidt got a grip on the 34-inch, 32-ounce Old Hickory TC-1 he didn’t let go as he reached the majors and carried bats in that model through 11 seasons, six All-Star Games, and more than 6,000 plate appearances.

“And I just never switched,” he said.

Until now.

The Cardinals’ first baseman joined the vanguard of bat crafting this winter when he visited the Baseball Performance Lab in Baton Rouge, La., and left with a custom Marucci bat designed to help increase his bat speed, right down to the subtly oversized knob nicknamed the “hockey puck.” It’s an inch longer than his previous bat and about an ounce heavier, but that ounce is housed beneath his lower hand on bats crafted specifically to suit his swing. Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, the Cardinals’ leading engines of offense, have both used the counterweight knob bats this spring, and Goldschmidt debuted it in Friday’s game.

“Basically what Marucci and (BPL) are doing is club fitting — but for baseball,” Goldschmidt said. “Golf has been doing it a lot longer than baseball. Obviously, I used the same model for a long time and had success with it. I was interested to learn more. It wasn’t like, oh, I need to switch or do anything, but I think being open-minded … to do what could potentially increase my performance.”

Goldschmidt visited the Titleist Performance Institute several years ago and was intrigued by BPL’s blend of biomechanics study, advanced tech, and golf-like bat fitting going into last spring. He waited because he did not want to make a bat switch so close to the regular season. In December, Goldschmidt and Arenado met and spent hours together at the lab in Baton Rouge. Former teammate Matt Carpenter also joined them. The two hitters from the middle of the Cardinals’ order went through several hours of swings to have their mechanics mapped, their body movements measured, and experiment with a variety of bats designed based on the results.

In an age of spin-rates and “pitchcraft” when the only thing moving faster than pitches is the tech being used to fine-tune them, BPL’s founder Liam Mucklow says in a video that the lab is “the place where we do bat design to blow up pitch design.”

“What could help me get more mph without changing a whole lot?” Arenado said of his interest. “Working on bat speed and stuff like that. Just learning about it. More mph off the bat. Hitting the ball harder, plain and simple.”

Arenado left Baton Rouge with a variety of bat models, including one with the counterweight knob — or “hockey puck” — that is 34½ inches, an inch longer than his usual bat. He’s used it in batting practice and plans to try it in an exhibition game this spring.

Goldschmidt has swung his exclusively.

“I was able to swing it a little bit better while keeping the feel and barrel control I had with my (original) bat,” he said. “Which is good. Because I really didn’t want to make a big change. You’ve got to be ready to make changes, but I don’t know if you want to make wholesale changes.”

After having his swing studied, Goldschmidt learned that the TC-1 was, based on balance, as perfect a fit as any non-custom could be. Either he could tell from their first meeting, or after 12 years together his swing adapted. It’s all about the balance. In partnership with Marucci, BPL has advanced the use of its Balance Point Index (BPI) to measure bats beyond the age-old monolithic length and weight. It determines how hard a bat is to swing, to generate bat speed. To accelerate Goldschmidt’s bat speed, the initial recommendation was an end-loaded model, more weight away from his hands.

The bat felt right, but the results were off. The hard contact drifted.

One of his hosts had an idea and trotted across McCann Drive in Baton Rouge to Marucci’s headquarters. Within 15 minutes, Goldschmidt had the new model in his hands that he’ll use in games. They put a “puck” on it to change the weight distribution.

“It’s not about what the weight physically is, it’s where the weight is distributed,” said Micah Gibbs, BPL’s director of player performance. The puck “adds weight but makes it swing faster.”

Goldschmidt likened it to boxing — and the power and control of a punch that comes when the hands remain close to the torso. It’s like a figure skater tucking in her hands to increase the speed of spins, and what helped Goldschmidt increase that speed and contact was the “puck.” Instead of a traditional knob, flared knob, or axe-handle knob, the counterweight knob looks like the end of a peppermill or head of a mallet. It could fit in a car’s cupholder.

Former Cubs outfielder Joc Pederson was the first major-league hitter to use a Marucci bat with the “puck” in a game, and Joey Gallo used one for an extended stretch. Goldschmidt is the latest in a growing group that will surpass 10 this season.

Although it adds an inch and an ounce, the feel of Goldschmidt’s 35-inch, 33-ounce bat in his hands is similar to his trusty 34-inch, 32-ounce TC-1.

“If you grip it you would never tell the difference,” he said.

He went to grab his former bat as an example but offered only a telling comment.

“I don’t have any of my old bats here,” he said.

Goldschmidt, 34, is coming off a second-half surge that made 2021 one of his finest seasons. He finished sixth in MVP voting, had 31 homers, 99 RBIs, and a .514 slugging percentage to go with a .294 average. He slugged .618 with a 1.020 OPS after the All-Star break, and in the past two seasons he’s one of only three NL hitters to have 900 plate appearances and an OPS+ greater than 140, where 100 is average. Dodgers teammates Freddie Freeman (143) and Trea Turner (151) are the other two.

Advanced metrics placed Goldschmidt among the elite hitters with a top 10% finish in average exit velocity (92.6 mph), expected batting average (.293), expected slugging percentage (.575), and hard-hit rate (50.6%). All were career bests in the Statcast era (since 2015), and he’s never had a season in that time with a hard-hit rate greater than 50%. His average exit velocity ranked second on the Cardinals to Tyler O’Neill (93.0 mph) and 16th overall, per Baseball Savant, snug between Joey Votto (92.6 mph) and NL MVP Bryce Harper (92.5 mph).

The TC-1 bat clearly worked.

Goldschmidt asked if it could work better.

“We’re looking for subtle changes,” he said. “As much as you’d like to go, man, I’m going to hit the ball 5 mph harder, I just don’t know if that’s realistic. But if every year, or throughout the year, you’re looking to get a little bit better in a number of ways, you can make changes. There’s always a new guy coming into the league who is trying to get better.”

Goldschmidt said he would have explored the bat-fitting earlier in his career if the concept had been available. He likened visiting a lab in Baton Rouge and its advanced tech to any tool a player has — as important as dining with veterans and seeking advice was when he was younger or the cage work with coaches has always been.

A successful hitter seeks any improvement he can get his hands on.

“You have to adapt,” Goldschmidt said. “That’s what I’m trying to do. If there’s something that can potentially help, you’ve got to do it.”