Talking Bats with Tyler Wade

Learn why New York Yankees utility man Tyler Wade loves his Louisville Slugger I13M.

New York Yankees utility player Tyler Wade is doing whatever it takes to help the Bronx Bombers win their 28th World Series championship. Since making his Major League Baseball debut in 2017, Wade has played every position except for pitcher, catcher and first base, filling in wherever needed. All the while, he has swung his Louisville Slugger I13M, a bat he praised for its consistency.

“I just like the way it feels in my hand,” Wade said of his beloved Louisville Slugger bat. “It’s super balanced… I feel like every single bat I get out of the box is the exact same.”

Wade sticks to the same model, but he has experimented with different wood species throughout his career. In 2020, the utility player made the switch to Maple after swinging both Ash and Birch models earlier in his career.

“I kind of just found my way back to Maple,” Wade said. “I like to dabble. I don’t like to get too far from the base model, but I like to kind of branch out a little bit.”

The left-handed hitter doesn’t have many hitting superstitions, but he only ever brings two bats to the field on game days.

“I’m kind of weird with bats,” Wade said. “If I’m going well, I’ll use that same bat. I don’t ever use my game bat in (batting practice), so I always have a BP bat, but I always cycle it. If I’m done with my game bat, that usually becomes my BP bat.”

Keep up with Wade all season by following him on Instagram @tylerwade and on Twitter @_tylerwade.