TORONTO – Daulton Varsho likes to go all out when tracking fly balls, but he has to be a little more cautious because of the new smaller foul areas at Rogers Centre.
The Toronto Blue Jays completed the second phase of a $400 million renovation at their downtown ballpark in the off-season, which included changes designed to improve the experience for fans and players as the stadium becomes a baseball-specific venue. But renovations changed the dimensions of the field, bringing in and making the outfield walls higher in Phase 1 of 2023 and then shortening the outfields before this season as part of Phase 2.
Part of shrinking the bad area was to build high walls parallel to the first and third base lines in the outfield.
“It’s a little dangerous because you have to know how to hit it if you’re going to hit that wall,” said Varsho, who typically plays left field. “It occurred to me one day that if you go with your feet into a wall, there’s a good chance you’ll sprain your ankle or hit a bad spot.”
“You almost have to slide and then move your body so that your body hits the wall.”
Phase 1 focused on rebuilding the stadium’s upper bowl and creating new fan areas, but as part of this, left-center field was brought down by seven feet to 368 feet, but the height of the wall was reduced by 11 feet. , had increased by two inches. The right-center field wall rose 16 feet to 359 feet and increased its height by 14 feet, four inches.
The second phase reduced the foul area by approximately 3,000 square feet and added walls to the area along the foul lines, where previously there were low stands where outfielders could lean – sometimes into the laps of fans – to field foul balls. to catch. Establishing those side walls and limiting foul territory has changed the way outfielders like Varsho run to the ball.
“Balls coming down, they’ll wrap around that wall, so it feels like you almost have to play goalie and be able to stop it,” Varsho said, noting that running curved routes toward the ball is now more common. If not possible, square up to home plate for a more stable catch. “Now no one is able to go around it or come across it.
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“It’s just about being able to know what you need to get there and being able to get to those baseballs.”
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Davis Schneider, who plays left field when Varsho is in center, said the new dimensions are something he’ll have to adapt to in Toronto’s 15 home games this season.
“It’s such a short foul area, you can’t run into the wall so hard or you have to make sure you play it differently than before,” Schneider said. “Balls down the line, they won’t actually kick out anymore, they’ll either hit that wall and shoot back to the shortstop or they’ll keep going over the wall so you have to play the balls differently.”
Help from the infield is a necessity, as sharp corners and short distances to home make it possible for hard-hit balls to return to the shallow part of the outfield. A shortstop is to move to the outfield in left field on a line drive and, depending on where the baserunners are, the first or second baseman is to move to right field to support their respective outfielders.
“You don’t really have a lot of space, so no matter what happens down the line, you still have to create that angle,” right-fielder George Springer said. “The only big difference is that I trust (All-Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) and whoever is playing second, just because of the short corner, because I have to force myself to go to the wall. Have to bow down.
“If the ball hits that sideline I need someone else to get there, but other than that, everything is the same.”
Utility infielder Isaiah Kinfer-Falefa, who played third base 18 times in 31 games for the Blue Jays this season, said he thinks Rogers Center now plays like one of baseball’s cathedrals: Boston’s. Fenway Park.
“It’s a little bit like how you play kick-off in Boston, it’s exactly the same,” Kiner-Falefa said. “But I enjoy it as a hitter. This helps a lot with less soiled soil.
“It’s something where the home team can take advantage if we figure out how to play the ball off the wall.”
Although the Blue Jays have played only 15 home games so far this year — less than 10 percent of the season total — there is some statistical evidence that the new dimensions have changed what kind of hitting is prevalent at Rogers Center.
Baseball Savant is an online resource operated by Major League Baseball that tracks detailed data on every pitch, swing and game throughout the season.
This includes the park factor, a statistic that compares each MLB stadium on more complex statistics such as singles, extra-base hits, home runs, strikeouts, runs, and BACON (batting average on contact, including home runs). A park factor score of 100 means the stadium is average compared to all other ballparks in the league. A higher number means the frequency of that stat is higher compared to other locations and a lower number means it is a more rare occurrence.
Baseball Savant has park factor data for Rogers Center dating back to 1998, when it was called the SkyDome. The only numbers missing on the website are from 2020 when no MLB games were held in Toronto due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Historically, Rogers Center has been a home-run hitters’ park, with its Park Factor score at or above average 19 times between 1998 and 2022. But after the walls were relocated and raised in 2023, its rating dropped to 95. It currently has a 94 home-run park factor this season.
However, singles are considerably more common.
In 26 seasons of Baseball Savant Track Park Factor, Rogers Center has been above average for singles only three times, reaching a modest score of 101 three times (2004, 2005, 2022). So far this season, it is at an all-time high of 111. Hits in general are also up, with the current Park Factor rating being 109, four points higher than the previous high of 105 in 2003.
New artificial turf was installed during off-season renovations after the previous field was torn up when the demolition process began last fall. Kinfer-Falefa thinks the new turf may have something to do with the increased frequency of base hits.
“I’ve always enjoyed my time coming here as a visitor,” Kiner-Falefa said, “so to be able to play here and bring the foul dimension, the short, the fence in, it definitely helps a lot, ” Kiner-Falefa said the field at Rogers Center is one of the reasons he signed with the Blue Jays in the off-season. “I feel like sometimes outfielders lay back to make sure that balls don’t go over their heads, so that they’re not as aggressive on those fly balls, on those shallow fly balls coming in and a lot of them. Balls go out of play rather than being caught.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2024.