End of Season Bat Check: What to Look At Before You Shop for Next Spring

The season ends and the bat goes in the garage. Nobody thinks about it again until February.

August is the better month to look at it. The player has just finished a season of growing. Next spring’s division is already known. And there is no deadline pressure on the decision.

Bats Plus is an independently owned baseball and softball equipment retailer shipping from Essington, Pennsylvania, and an authorized dealer for every brand we carry. We ship to all 50 states and to overseas US military bases. Parents ask us about replacement bats most often in March, a few days before the first practice. August gives you more room.

Four things are worth checking while the bat is still in your hand.

The Division a Player Moves Into Decides the Stamp

Moving up a division can change the certification a bat needs. That catches families off guard more than anything else on this list.

Little League International sets it out by division. The Major Division and below require USABat bats. Intermediate (50/70) and Junior divisions accept a USABat bat or a BBCOR bat. Senior division requires BBCOR.

Travel and tournament baseball runs on a separate track. USSSA publishes its own bat standards, its own bat marks, and a withdrawn or disallowed bat list on its equipment page. Leagues and tournament operators can layer their own drop weight limits on top of the standard.

So a player can finish one season with a bat that worked all year and start the next in a division that does not accept it. The bat did not change. The requirement did.

Players moving into high school baseball have one extra thing to check this year. The BBCOR standard is changing hands and changing names. USA Baseball has confirmed that previously certified BBCOR .50 bats stay eligible for high school play indefinitely. Our baseball bat gift checklist covers those dates in full.

Ask the league or the tournament operator which mark they will require next spring. Ask now, while there is time to act on the answer.

If the answer means a different stamp, start with USA baseball bats, USSSA baseball bats, or BBCOR baseball bats.

A Certification Mark Can Change After the Purchase

This one surprises people. A bat that was approved when you bought it can stop being approved later.

USA Baseball reserves the right to compliance test any bat on the USABat approved list at any time. Select models get bought at retail and tested at the Washington State University Sports Science Lab, using the original certification process.

If a production bat does not meet the standard, USA Baseball rules it non-compliant and begins decertification. Leagues that have adopted USABat no longer approve that model for play.

One detail matters for anyone checking a bat at home. USA Baseball certifies each length and drop separately, because manufacturers produce them slightly differently. A single length of a model can lose certification while every other length in that family stays approved. Reading the model name off the barrel is not enough. Check the length and the drop too.

USA Baseball publishes its decertified bat list and states that the manufacturer must provide relief to consumers in that situation.

A Season of Growth Changes the Fit

Drop weight is the bat’s length in inches minus its weight in ounces. A 30 inch bat weighing 20 ounces is a drop 10, written as -10. A larger drop number means a lighter bat at that length.

A player who grew four inches over the summer is swinging a different bat than the one you bought. The bat is the same. The player is not.

The USABat standard sets no drop weight limit. BBCOR caps the drop at -3. That gap is why the move into high school baseball has meant a step up in weight.

The practical check takes two minutes. Have the player take a normal swing in the yard with last season’s bat. Control is the thing to watch. A bat the player controls through the whole swing is a bat they can handle in a game.

Height and weight both matter here, and so does strength. Two players the same height can need different drops. That is why manufacturer charts give ranges rather than one answer.

Manufacturers publish sizing charts by height and weight for their own models. Those charts are the right reference for a specific bat. Measure the player now rather than guessing from last spring.

Storage and Care Follow the Manufacturer’s Guidance

Bats spend the off season in garages, sheds, and car trunks. Temperature limits and care instructions vary by model and by barrel material.

Manufacturers publish different temperature guidance depending on barrel material. Check the guidance for the bat you own rather than a general rule of thumb.

Follow what the manufacturer publishes for that bat. We do not restate warranty terms in our copy, because those terms belong to the manufacturer and to our Policies page.

If the bat has visible damage, ask the league how it handles damaged equipment, and contact the manufacturer about the warranty.

Our guide to what each bat stamp means covers where the mark sits on the barrel and what each one signals.

Frequently Asked Questions About Checking a Bat at the End of the Season