{"id":411812,"date":"2026-01-14T07:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/411812\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T07:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:27:08","slug":"royals-moving-in-outfield-fences-at-kauffman-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/411812\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals Moving In Outfield Fences At Kauffman Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Royals announced they\u2019re moving in the outfield fence in both corners (link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com<\/a>). ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan<\/a> reported the decision before the club announcement. The dead center field wall will remain 410 feet from home plate, though the team is slightly reducing the wall height throughout the outfield. The corners are each being pulled in by nine feet, while they\u2019re bringing in the center field alleys by 10 feet apiece.<\/p>\n

General manager J.J. Picollo said it\u2019s a calculated effort on the team\u2019s part to improve their offense. \u201cDuring the course of the season, we just started doing some research, running some numbers and trying to figure out how much this really impacts our offense. Consequently, how would it affect our pitching staff? Ultimately, we concluded that we would be a better team offensively,\u201d Picollo told Rogers. \u201cWith our current pitching staff, the changes in the dimensions wouldn\u2019t impact [pitching] negatively as much as it impacts our offense positively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kauffman Stadium has a reputation as one of the harder parks in which to hit. Statcast\u2019s Park Factor<\/a> data has actually graded it as a decent hitter\u2019s park over the past three years. It\u2019s in a lopsided way, however. The spacious outfield has made the park more favorable for total hits, especially doubles and triples, but it\u2019s a tough venue for power bats. Only Pittsburgh\u2019s PNC Park and San Francisco\u2019s Oracle Park have suppressed home runs more than Kauffman since 2023. Hitters at Kauffman Stadium have homered on 9.7% of their fly-balls. The MLB average is a couple points higher (11.8%).<\/p>\n

It grades as the toughest park for left-handed home run power. The change in dimensions should be a nice boost for a team that has lefty-hitting Jac Caglianone<\/a> and\u00a0Carter Jensen<\/a> as two of their most important young bats. Left-handed hitting first baseman\u00a0Vinnie Pasquantino<\/a> is coming off a 32-homer season (14 of which came at home) that led the team.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a \u201cchicken or the egg\u201d element to the park factor data. Kauffman has played unfavorably to home run hitters, so the Royals have tended to build their teams around contact-oriented bats and emphasized outfield defense. The Royals are aware of that, of course, and the ballpark changes aren\u2019t a decision they made on a whim. Those interested in the topic are encouraged to read the full columns from Rogers and Passan, as both reporters speak with assistant GM Daniel Mack about the various factors (e.g. temperature, altitude, batted ball data, the stadium\u2019s batter\u2019s eye) that went into the decision.<\/p>\n

Picollo and Mack each said they hope the park will play more neutral for home runs than exceedingly hitter friendly. They indicated they feel that could allow their hitters to be more comfortable adjusting between homestands and road trips without feeling they need to overhaul their approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to make the park so offensive that it hurts your pitchers,\u201d Mack told Rogers. \u201cBut one of the things we know is that our fly balls, particularly in parts of this park \u2014 the run value per fly ball is significantly less than the league. \u2026 When they play at Kauffman, they don\u2019t have to play one specific way, and then when they go to another ballpark, even if it\u2019s way on the other extreme, all of a sudden, they\u2019re thinking about, \u2018Do I have to do something different offensively there in order to be successful versus what I do at Kauffman?\u2019 (We\u2019re) trying to find that fairness and consistency across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Royals announced they\u2019re moving in the outfield fence in both corners (link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com).…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-411812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}