NEW YORK — A few hours before the Red Sox took on the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, Victus sales representative Mike Sinclair stopped by the visitors’ clubhouse to drop off one last shipment of bats to Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia.

The bats, produced in partnership with Baden and featuring a patented axe-style handle, appear to remain something of a curiosity in the room even though Pedroia has been using them in games since late May. Conceived by a New York woodworker named Bruce Leinart who noticed how much more comfortable his hands felt while swinging an axe versus a bat with a traditional knob, Axe Bats aim to offer better grips and more efficient swings while reducing the hand injuries that can plague hitters.

A team employee grabbed one of Pedroia’s bats, held it to the ground, and mimicked putting while wondering aloud if golf clubs could benefit from the handle. Mookie Betts walked over and grabbed one, taking a few half-swings. Betts has himself been using Pedroia’s bats at times during a torrid final month of the season that has seen the 22-year-old raise his OPS to .833 for the year. Pedroia joked that Betts could use his bats as long as he wants, as long as he keeps hitting homers. Nearby, rookie catcher Blake Swihart cradled a pine-tar covered Axe Bat personalized for now-departed former teammate Mike Napoli.

“They’re loving it,” Sinclair told USA TODAY Sports. “They’re saying it’s comfortable; it’s good on their hands. As long as they’re having success, that’s all they want. So it makes us all happy.”

“I just tried it out to start, and I liked it,” Betts said. “I didn’t really know how it would work, or how the grip would be. But it actually works. It has been pretty good. It stops callouses from building on my hands; that has been the main thing.”

Red Sox players Brock Holt, Allen Craig and Hanley Ramirez have all also used the bats in games this season. Elsewhere, Cameron Maybin, Darren Ruf and Collin Cowgill have experimented with similar models, and <a href=" "I swung 'em for a couple of days, but I haven't been as religious as Pedey and now Mookie," Holt said. "It felt good. It feels kind of like you're locked in. Unfortunately for me, Victus has the rights to the axe handle, and I swing Marucci. I like Marucci a lot, so I went back to my normal ones." The handles might only make for tiny differences, but hitting is such a difficult endeavor that a fraction of a second in batspeed or a millimeter more control could mean the difference between a home run and a pop up. Players should and will always seek whatever tiny advantages exist at their disposal, a notion that Sinclair believes bodes well for the Axe Bats. "If other players see a guy like Stanton or Pedroia using them, they know it's for real -- not some gimmick, you know?" Sinclair said. "I've been hearing it from the players themselves that it's really getting out there. Guys on other teams are asking these guys how it feels. I think next year it's going to make a huge splash."