{"id":2342246,"date":"2026-03-23T15:36:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2342246"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:36:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:36:54","slug":"royals-offseason-creates-a-major-home-field-advantage-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/royals-offseason-creates-a-major-home-field-advantage-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals offseason creates a major home field advantage in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-id=\"6f6cf87\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"theme-post-content.default\">\n<p>In baseball, homefield advantages are real. Normally, a team is built to accentuate the field\u2019s 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\u2019 lefty hitters.\u00a0A 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 \u201cpitcher\u2019s ballpark\u201d, which negatively affects the team\u2019s hitters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE: <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/dodgers-cut-world-series-champion-who-made-final-out-of-2025-three-days-before-opening-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><strong>Dodgers cut World Series champion three days before Opening Day<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-some-history\">Some History:<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_9949645-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-136236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_9949645-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_9949645-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_9949645-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_9949645-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_9949645-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" data-eio=\"l\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Mar 17, 2017; Fort Myers, FL, USA; A view of the former Boston Red Sox player Ted Williams prior to the game of the Houston Astros against the Boston Red Sox at JetBlue Park. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>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\u2026and at the time, their pitchers warmed up on the sidelines in foul territory. <\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-the-change-affects-the-royals\">How the change affects the Royals:<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"745\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-127741 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-1024x745.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-1024x745.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-768x559.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-1536x1118.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-2048x1491.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-eio-rwidth=\"1024\" data-eio-rheight=\"745\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"745\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-1024x745.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-127741\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-1024x745.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-768x559.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-1536x1118.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/USATSI_28338252_168396005_lowres-2048x1491.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" data-eio=\"l\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Feb 25, 2026; Surprise, Arizona, USA; Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. against the Seattle Mariners during a spring training game at Surprise Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stats are kept to determine which fields are \u201chitters\u201d parks and which are \u201cpitchers\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>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\u00a0 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-hr-last-season-compared-to-what-it-could-be-in-2026\">HR last season compared to what it could be in 2026:<\/h2>\n<p>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\u2026they should at least hit over 180 HRs, with a shot of hitting 200. This would put them into the top 10. While they won\u2019t turn into the New York Yankees, this big a jump will certainly add wins.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>\u2014 <\/em><\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/\"><strong><em>Enjoy free coverage of the top news &amp; trending stories on The Big Lead <\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>\u2014<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>MARCH MADNESS: <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/updated-2026-march-madness-bracket-sweet-16-set-ncaa-tournament\/\"><strong>Updated 2026 March Madness bracket, Sweet 16 set for NCAA Tournament<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>NFL: <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/3-nfl-draft-prospects-whose-stock-are-in-question\/\"><strong>3 NFL Draft prospects whose stock is in question<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>NBA: <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/kevin-durant-has-low-key-response-to-passing-michael-jordan-on-nba-scoring-list\/\"><strong>Kevin Durant has low-key response to passing Michael Jordan on NBA scoring list<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>ENTERTAINMENT:<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/fans-react-to-chappel-roan-jorginho-daughter-controversy\/\"><strong> Fans react to Chappel Roan, Jorginho daughter controversy<\/strong><\/a><br \/><strong>VIRAL: <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/flaujae-johnson-kim-mulkey-emotional-moment-final-lsu-home-game\/\"><strong>Flau\u2019jae Johnson, Kim Mulkey share emotional moment after final LSU home game<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 -->\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.thebiglead.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In baseball, homefield advantages are real. Normally, a team is built to accentuate the field\u2019s 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\u2019 lefty hitters.\u00a0A major change is happening ahead of this season for one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2342247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[21849,43627,25866],"class_list":["post-2342246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-baseball","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-mlb"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Royals-offseason-creates-a-major-home-field-advantage-in-2026.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2342246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2342248,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2342246\/revisions\/2342248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2342247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2342246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2342246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2342246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}