The Royals announced via press release today that they will be shortening the Kauffman Stadium outfield fences as well as moving them in for the start of the 2026 season.
The Royals’ analytics department has performed an analysis over the last three years that has shown that bringing the fences in would have benefited the Royals more than their opponents. They expect this move to increase the value of flyballs hit at Kauffman from the bottom into the middle of the league. The Royals previously moved the fences in by ten feet in 1995, but moved them back after the 2003 season.
The press release included the new dimensions:
The wall will come in 8 to 10 feet starting near each foul pole – the gaps will go from 387 feet to 379 – and taper back toward centerfield, which will remain 410 feet. The height of the wall will also change, from 10 feet tall in most places to 8 ½ feet. About 150 seats will be added in left field and about 80 new drinkrail seats in right.
Despite the laws of supply and demand, no ticket price decrease has been announced by the team at this time.
Kyle Isbel will still have his work cut out for him in center field, but the corner outfielders should have a slightly easier time doing their jobs. This should also increase home runs for a team that has traditionally been near the bottom of the sport in that category, even though Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez each hit more than 30 last year. Salvador Perez was cited in an article on FanGraphs yesterday as having the largest gap in baseball between his expected home runs and actual bombs.
It seems a bit odd to be making changes to the stadium dimensions when the team hopes to vacate in the next five years, but apparently, the construction can be completed relatively quickly, and the team believes this move could improve their ability to win games even though it would also add hits to their opponents. It will be interesting to see what impact this could have on the team’s pitching effectiveness that has buoyed them over the past two seasons. Regardless, the team projects this will further increase extra-base hits generally in Kauffman, even as it was already one of the most favorable stadiums in the sport for doubles and triples due to its expansive size. Royals hitters should be absolutely salivating.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.royalsreview.com ’
