In baseball, homefield advantages are real. Normally, a team is built to accentuate the field’s unique dimensions. The Yankees have often acquired lefty bats to hit HRs to their short porch in right field. They also seek out lefty pitchers to counteract opponents’ lefty hitters. A major change is happening ahead of this season for one AL team. Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, is bringing in their fences. Kauffman Stadium is known as a “pitcher’s ballpark”, which negatively affects the team’s hitters.
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Some History:
The Red Sox like to have strong righties to hit the ball over The Green Monster. In 1940, they famously brought in their right field fence by about 25 feet when a skinny kid from San Francisco made the team. Ted Williams joined the Sox in 1939…and at the time, their pitchers warmed up on the sidelines in foul territory.
In 1940, owner Tom Yawkey petitioned the league to bring in the fence in Right Field to create a new area for pitchers to warm up. While it served a real purpose, it was mainly to bring in the fence to make it easier for Williams to hit home runs.
How the change affects the Royals:
Stats are kept to determine which fields are “hitters” parks and which are “pitchers” parks. A free agent may determine which team he signs with based on that information. Sometimes, a team will make changes to the ballpark if data proves to be lopsided against their hitters or pitchers.
With that said, the team does have some hitters who do hit their fair share of HRs. In his four seasons, Bobby Witt Jr has hit 20, 30, 32, and 23 HRs. Vinnie Pasquantino has hit 10, 9, 19, and 32 HRs. Jac Caglianone hit seven last season in 210 ABs. And Salvy Perez has averaged 27 HRs in his last three seasons.
The outfield is being brought in by about 10ft, and the fence is being reduced from 10ft to 8.5ft. Data suggests that over the past five seasons, if the field had these dimensions, the Royals would have gained about 25 HRs per year. That would have meant between 5 and 10 additional HRs for Witt, Pasquantino, and Perez.
HR last season compared to what it could be in 2026:
Last season, the team hit a total of 159 HRs, which was 26th out of 30 MLB teams. This change will improve this figure dramatically…they should at least hit over 180 HRs, with a shot of hitting 200. This would put them into the top 10. While they won’t turn into the New York Yankees, this big a jump will certainly add wins.
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