The Royals announced they’re moving in the outfield fence in both corners (link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com). ESPN’s Jeff Passan 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’re bringing in the center field alleys by 10 feet apiece.
General manager J.J. Picollo said it’s a calculated effort on the team’s part to improve their offense. “During 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,” Picollo told Rogers. “With our current pitching staff, the changes in the dimensions wouldn’t impact [pitching] negatively as much as it impacts our offense positively.”
Kauffman Stadium has a reputation as one of the harder parks in which to hit. Statcast’s Park Factor data has actually graded it as a decent hitter’s park over the past three years. It’s in a lopsided way, however. The spacious outfield has made the park more favorable for total hits, especially doubles and triples, but it’s a tough venue for power bats. Only Pittsburgh’s PNC Park and San Francisco’s 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%).
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 and Carter Jensen as two of their most important young bats. Left-handed hitting first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino is coming off a 32-homer season (14 of which came at home) that led the team.
There’s a “chicken or the egg” 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’t 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’s batter’s eye) that went into the decision.
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.
“You don’t want to make the park so offensive that it hurts your pitchers,” Mack told Rogers. “But one of the things we know is that our fly balls, particularly in parts of this park — the run value per fly ball is significantly less than the league. … When they play at Kauffman, they don’t have to play one specific way, and then when they go to another ballpark, even if it’s way on the other extreme, all of a sudden, they’re thinking about, ‘Do I have to do something different offensively there in order to be successful versus what I do at Kauffman?’ (We’re) trying to find that fairness and consistency across the board.”
How often do teams admit that they do this a a strategic move to help their team?
Every time.
I didn’t realize you can do this at will, and by season.
Every team should should be doing this every season, no?
Every team knows they can do this at will. When they deem it fits they do it.
They should do it during select at bats then switch back
Haha yes electronic moveable walls selected by the batter. All these gimmick rules hurt the game especially the pitch clock and restricted throws to the bases. And the mickey mouse extra inning rule.
We are about 7 rules changes away from Futurama
Lol
Don’t give Manfred any ideas.
The Red Sox tried it with the left field wall. 263 men ended up with hernias.
Here goes Bobby Witt Jr now everyone will finally give him the respect he deserves when he hits 40+ home runs next year.
With the avg go down though?
The man is already able to hit .330 with 30 homers, keeping his avg above .300 to get 40 should be easy
You think Witt isn’t respected? 🤣
I just don’t hear his name near as much as guys like Judge when he is very close to putting up his WAR numbers. He definitely is respected but doesn’t get talked about as much as he deserves to in my opinion.
Because of the team he plays for
The players who play on the east & west coast always get a lot of publicity. Midwest players have do be extremely good.
Agreed but he is extremely good
They talk about Volpe more too.
It’s called media bias I wonder why whenever espn covers baseball it’s really just only the New York teams and Los Angeles
@slightly. Citi Field is the only stadium he had less expected HRs than Kauffman last year if he played all his games there. In ‘24, he would’ve hit 52 in Cincinnati lol. Welcome to the 40-40 club
The guy who’s widely considered the third-best player in baseball after Ohtani and Judge isn’t getting respect?
Is there a minimum for length? I mean no crap you wanna shorten the fences and improve your offense! Why doesn’t every team do that then??
It’s a balance. You want to help your hitters but at the same time you don’t want to hurt your pitchers.
Just do it bottom of inning switch back when no one looking
Back in the really old days teams used to basically do this. Some teams would let fans on the field behind a rope, a ball over the rope=HR, so they would push in when the home team was up, and pull the rope back for the opposition.
This was the deadball era though, so probably didnt matter much
With the light shows that go on after home teams hit home runs that should be easy.
Or if youre the Astros, push a button
They didn’t need to move the walls in for Branyan.
A distance of 320 feet or more along the foul lines, and 400 feet or more to center field is preferable. According to MLB Official Baseball Rules. However there are expectations for older ballparks. Fenway comes to mind.
We have finally figured out how to have a competent hitting outfield! Closer fences!
Can Perez get 400 HR now?
80 hr 2026 to close out his career. With an obp around .290
I hope the royals don’t move out of Kauffman, it’s such a cool ballpark and a new one would have no magic and just make more money for the owners (and maybe more jobs)
A new one would not have any parking right at the stadium. It’s so convenient and there’s a lot better security at Kauffman than there would be anywhere near downtown
Say goodbye to your above average pitching. You can’t get something for nothing in this league. You are making your batters better and your opponents batters better and your pitching at home worse.
Bring back the Polo Grounds!
Bring back Greenberg Gardens in Pittsburgh also
What will it cost? What will it cost?
A. A box of these . Their such children
@ Ignorant. KC can tailor their pitching staff to their park
Kind of wish teams would actually push their fences back, not in. Most players in the league chase HRs and launch angle and batting averages have plummeted as a result. Pushing the fences back could theoretically mean more doubles and triples and more baserunners. HRs are more exciting, I guess. But with MLB changing rules to increase stolen bases, more baserunners would seem to tie in to that.
The Royals offense is bad because they swing at every pitch. They were 29th in the league in walks and 30th in strikeouts. If you see so few pitches and don’t run many deep counts, then of course you won’t hit many home runs, you’re not going to see that many hangers when the pitcher is rarely in deep counts.
The royals k rate was the second lowest in the league. The offense is bad because the outfielders haven’t been great hitters.
-phillies1993- you got half way there, did you forget your meds?
LAA were 30th in total K’s with 1,627 in 2025
KC was 1st in total K’s with 1,096 in 2025
NYY were 1st in total BB with 639 in 2025
KC was 29th in total BB with 435 in 2025
About a month ago, The Athletic ran an article on how outfield positioning based on analytics is cutting down significantly on the number of extra-base hits, especially doubles. Outfielders are playing deeper by as much as ten feet on average. The math says it is better to give up more singles if it reduces the number of doubles allowed. So it seems pulling in the corners at Kauffman will likely exaggerate the trend at this stadium.
The league is mulling over possible solutions similar to the positioning restrictions implemented on the infield, but obviously, this is much more difficult to implement in the OF. Another reason to love analytics. Anyway, it was a very interesting article and would have made for some good discussion here. I was sorry MLBTR missed reporting on it.
I’m surprised they can get all this done, while adding additional seating, before the home opener. Wonder if they had this plan for a while and have had construction out there before the announcement.
It will also help opposing offenses , unless your pitchers can induce 85% ground ball rates
I like to watch real baseball, not all these hr or nothing batters.
What are the new dimensions and wall height?
410 to center
-9 for corners
-10 alleys
It’s not the first time they’ve tried this.
This worked so well for Baltimore last year.
Royals already so gimmicky. Back in the day it was the fountain ⛲️. Now they have Sasquatch and Lorde come out of the outfield wall at select intervals. Wonder what they do the rest of the time. Prolly living under the fence scrounging for scraps, pass the time playing rummy.
*singing* ‘I am Lorde!’
How can one possibly know that their team’s pitching will not be hurt as much as their offense will benefit in the upcoming season??? Maybe some people believe that….
Good for them. They probably should’ve done this before they talked to free agents…. Or maybe it’s why they decided they kept getting “that won’t be necessary but thanks for the interest”