Royals didn’t reduce the height of outfield walls strictly for baseball reasons
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- R&D modeling guided fence moves and height cuts, alongside other factors.
- Sight lines for added front-row seating were a factor in lowering walls.
- Team sought to keep park below-average runs while enabling more highlight plays.
Royals outfielders have turned in multiple web gems at Kauffman Stadium, but one exciting baseball play has been in short supply over the past decade.
The home run-saving catch.
Oh, it’s happened — but not frequently. That could change this season because of an adjustment the Royals made at The K. Not only have the walls been moved in, but the height of the outfield wall also has been reduced from 10 feet to 8 1/2 feet in many parts.
Royals general manager J.J. Picollo shared how the height of the wall could affect play.
“The distance and the height of the fence, both of those factors were part of how we did our research,” Picollo said. “With every foot you brought the fence in, it had an effect on fly balls. And for every, I’ll say, 6 inches you brought the fences down, it had an effect as well. So with our algorithms, our R&D (research and development) department, we were able to figure out what we were trying to accomplish with our field overall, whether it’s the height of the fence or the distance of the fence.
“We were trying to get the park to still play really below league average. We didn’t want to get to the point where it’s league average. We want it to play fair. So we had a sliding scale that essentially measured every foot you brought the fences in, and every 6 inches you brought the fences down, and where we landed was in the range that we were trying to accomplish.”
Mark Poulose of KCTV-5 earlier this week shared a look at work being done at Kauffman Stadium.
The video showed seats being installed behind the wall in some places. About 150 seats are being added in left field and 80 drinkrail seats in right.
Picollo said that was another reason why the walls were shortened.
“Because there’s going to be additional seating, the sight lines, if you were in that first row, and now you have seats in front of you, it changes your sight line,” Picollo said. “So the only way to accommodate those fans in the first row to still see the field the same way, you had to bring the fences down.“
Fans in those seats should have a better chance at catching a ball and watching a home-run saving catch.
When you think about the excitement of the game and what fans want to see, that’s a play at Kauffman that, you know, essentially you wouldn’t see,” Picollo said, “and now you’ll get a chance to see them. So that was part of the thinking as well. It wasn’t what drove the whole process, but it was part of the thinking, the fan excitement.”
This story was originally published March 26, 2026 at 11:54 AM.
