MANUFACTURING
HOME RUN SLUGGER AARON JUDGE
USES BATS MADE ON TREASURE COAST
CHANDLER BATS
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
Aaron Judge is chasing Roger Maris’ record of 61
home runs in a season. He’s holding a bat manufactured
by Chandler Bats of Port St. Lucie.
TCBusiness.com 3
BY BERNIE WOODALL
Even as the National Football League
and college football get into high
season, Aaron Judge of the New
York Yankees is grabbing the attention of
the American sports fan with his chase
of Roger Maris’ record 61 home runs in a
season, poetically 61 years after that mark
was set.
As sports networks and websites
break into regular programming to show
Judge’s plate appearances, Treasure Coast
residents can be proud that the bat he is
using was made in Port St. Lucie at the
manufacturing plant owned by privately
held Chandler Bats.
Chandler Bats Chief Executive Officer
Ben Chase told Treasure Coast Business
that all but one of Judge’s 60 homes runs
through Sept. 26 were hit with a Chandler
bat. Judge has nine more games after
Sept. 26 to hit one homer to tie Maris’
American League record set in 1961, and a
second one to become a record-breaker.
Sports fans like to argue that Maris’
home run single-season Major League
Baseball mark of 61 is the true record
because they claim that three National
League players Barry Bonds, Mark Mc-
Gwire and Sammy Sosa who hit more
did so with the help of prohibited performance
enhancing drugs. Regardless,
Judge’s chase of Maris’ is front-and-center
at the moment.
Chandler Bats is among a handful of
companies that supply wooden bats for
baseball players, including major leaguers
like Judge. The lion’s share of bats used
from youth baseball through college are
made with aluminum or carbon-fiber
composites. Major League Baseball allows
only wooden bats.
Chandler Bats was in the Philadelphia
area before moving to Port St. Lucie in
2021, a relocation facilitated by the Economic
Development Council of St. Lucie
County. The company began in 2009.
In June 2019, two-time Major League
all-star Yoenis Céspedes purchased Chandler
Bats. Céspedes played his last Major
League game for the New York Mets in
2020, and will suit up for the Áquilas Cibaeñas
the Cibaeñas Eagles of Santo Domingo
in the Dominican Republic Professional
Baseball League, known by Americans as
the Dominican Winter League. Céspedes
has said that he is not attempting a comeback
to lead back to the Major League, but
is playing “for the love of the game.” The
Cuban-born Céspedes turns 37 in October,
when the Dominican Republic threemonth
season begins.
Of course, Céspedes will use only Chandler
Bats bats when he is at the plate this
season in the Dominican Republic. Céspedes
has a ranch in Port St. Lucie where
he lives part of every year.
The roster of current Major League
players who take a Chandler bat to the
plate include two-time National League
Most Valuable Player and seven-time
all-star Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia
Phillies; all-star Nick Castellanos of the
Phillies; 2014 American League home
run leader and seven-time all-star Nelson
Cruz, now with the Washington Nationals;
Jose Ramirez and Andres Gimenez of the
Cleveland Guardians; Alejandro Kirk of the
Toronto Blue Jays; 2021 American League
Rookie of the Year Randy Arozarena and
Isaac Paredes of the Tampa Bay Rays; and
2020 Gold Glove winner Isiah Kiner-Falefa,
who is Judge’s teammate on the Yankees.
Chase, the Chandler Bats CEO, declined
to specifically say how many bats are
made in Port St. Lucie, the company’s only
manufacturing site, other than to say that
the number increases each year and that
thousands are made each month.
Judge goes through dozens of bats each
season. Chase said Judge has been using
Chandler bats since 2017, and was using
one when he won the Home Run Derby
that is held on the eve of the annual Major
League All-Star game each summer. In
2017, using a Chandler bat, Judge became
the first rookie to win the annual Home
Run Derby. Judge has been an American
League all-star four times.
If you look closely at your TV when
Judge is batting, you can see the distinctive
“C” logo in the middle of his bat.
The Yankees’ home run king uses a
35-inch, 33-ounce maple bat called the
AJ99.2. A bat with the exact same dimensions
is not available to purchase, but anyone
can buy the similar AJ99 model and
have it shipped the same day for $199, or
a custom-made AJ99 for $229-and-up. The
company’s website is chandlerbats.com.
There is buzz at the Chandler Bats manufacturing
plant about Judge’s home run
record pursuit, and of course, the workers
who make the bats that make records take
pride in that. But Chase won’t say if they
are all Yankees fans.
“All of our employees are fans of baseball,
including Aaron Judge but I cannot
speak to any particular MLB team preferences,”
Chase said. “We are a professional
equipment manufacturer so we don’t play
favorites. Players of all levels are treated
with the same level of care and quality.”
While that may be true, there’s certainty
that when Aaron Judge brings a Chandler
Bats bat to the plate, somewhere on the
Treasure Coast, most likely in Port St. Lucie,
there will be someone who can justifiably
say: “I made that.”
This is the model of Chandler Bats Aaron Judge uses.
CHANDLER BATS
2105 NW Settle Ave.
Port St. Lucie FL 34986
877.497.2287
chandlerbats.com
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