The Miami Marlins are bringing in the outfield fences for the 2020 season
Marlins Park just became a little bit more of a hitter’s ballpark.
The Marlins announced Wednesday that they will be moving a portion of the outfield wall from center field to right-center field closer to home plate. The move comes as the team announces it will install a new synthetic grass surface in partnership with Shaw Sports Turf.
“As we enhance the playing surface at Marlins Park, we felt it was also appropriate to take the opportunity to evaluate our outfield dimensions,” Marlins CEO and part-owner Derek Jeter said. “We made the decision to adjust the distance of the outfield fence, which will now be more in line with the field dimensions you see across many of today’s ballparks.”
A home run to straightaway center field will now only be 400 feet, compared to 407 feet. The right-center fence is now 387 feet away from home plate instead of 392.
The rest of the dimensions — 382 feet to left-center field, 335 down the right-field line and 340 down the left-field line — are remaining the same.
It’s a small change, but one that has the potential to help the Marlins as they aim to improve on an offensive performance last year that was among the worst in MLB.
During a season in which an MLB-record 6,776 home runs were hit, the Marlins hit an MLB-low 146 home runs as a team in 2019, including just 68 at home. The 173 total home runs hit at Marlins Park in 2019 were the third-fewest among any MLB ballpark, ahead of just Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium (162) and San Francisco’s Oracle Park (161).
Marlins Park has moved in and lowered the fences once before in 2016. From 2012 to 2015, the walls were set from 344 feet down the line in left to 386 in left-center, 418 in center, 392 in right-center and 335 down the line in right field.
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 11:58 AM.
.JPG)