MLB says Yankees’ new “torpedo bats” are legal and likely coming

Physics nerds, would a “larger contact area” give the baseball more velocity?

I’ve been speculating that moving the mass lower effectively increases bat speed because its a “shorter bat”, but all of the commentary is acting like the larger barrel is “more power”.

I’d expect larger barrel increases odds of contact, not increased power transfer?

(But I also think of a car with bike diameter wheels and that could obviously change the power transfer)