The Royals announced that they are moving to the outfield for both corners (link via Anne Rogers of MLB.com). ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the decision before the club’s announcement. The center field wall will remain 410 feet from home plate, although the team is slightly reducing the height of the wall throughout the field. The corners are drawn by nine meters, while the alleys enter the center by 10 meters each.
General manager JJ Picollo said it’s a concerted effort on the team’s part to improve their offense. “During the season, we just started doing some research, running the numbers and trying to figure out how much of an impact this really has on our offense. So, how is it going to affect our pitching staff? Ultimately, we concluded that we’re going to be a better team offensively,” Picollo told Rogers. “With our existing staff, size changes would have no impact [pitching] as bad as it has a positive effect on our offense.”
Kauffman Stadium has a reputation as one of the toughest parks to hit. Statcast’s Park Factor data has actually established it as a decent batting average over the last three years. It’s in a sideways way, though. The open field has made the park more attractive to full hitters, especially doubles and triples, but it is a difficult place for powerful bats. Only Pittsburgh’s PNC Park and San Francisco’s Oracle Park have hit more home runs than Kauffman since 2023. Batters at Kauffman Stadium hit 9.7% of their fly balls. The MLB average is a few points higher (11.8%).
It marks as the strongest left-handed power park in the country. The change in size should be a great boost for the left-handed hitting team Jac Caglianone again Carter Jensen as the two most important bats. A left-handed hitting first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino he is coming off a team-leading 32 homers season (14 of them home runs).
There is a “chicken or the egg” element to park feature data. Kauffman played poorly against home run hitters, so the Royals tended to build their teams around contact bats and emphasized outfield defense. The Royals know that, of course, and the ballpark changes are not a decision they made on their own accord. Those interested in the topic are encouraged to read Rogers and Passan’s full columns, as both reporters talk with assistant GM Daniel Mack about the various factors (eg temperature, pitch, batted ball data, batting pitch eye) that went into the decision.
Picollo and Mack said they hope the park will be more home run neutral than hitter friendly. They expressed that they felt that would allow hitters to be more comfortable between the residences and the road trip without feeling like they needed to adjust their approach.
“You don’t want to make the park so annoying that it hurts your pitchers,” Mack told Rogers. “But one of the things we know is our fly balls, especially in parts of this park – the number of runs per fly ball is much lower than the league. … When they play at Kauffman, they don’t have to play a certain way, and then when they go to another ballpark, even if it’s too late, all of a sudden, they’re thinking about doing something different to be successful. What did I do at Kauffman?’ (We’re trying to) get that fairness and consistency across the board.”
