As 4 teams now plan to extend netting, Yankees remain silent

It is surely small consolation at the moment to the family involved, but I’m convinced the foul-ball incident Wednesday at Yankee Stadium will be remembered as the tipping point in the protective-netting movement.

It was rather remarkable, in fact, that four major league teams responded the very next day by essentially committing to installing new netting, considering the debate on the issue is far from new.

It was even more remarkable, however, that the Yankees weren’t one of them.

For that matter, in their only statement they did the bare minimum in expressing concern for the little girl who was hit in the face by the foul ball, which is obviously of most importance as she remains in Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Meanwhile, as teams all over the country, the Reds, Mariners, Padres, and Rockies, felt the need to let their fans know how much the incident resonated with them by promising more protection, the Yankees didn’t so much as address the subject in their statement. That’s just inexcusable. By now we know that COO Lonn Trost, the point man on all Stadium issues, is tone-deaf on matters relating to fans, going back to his famously elitist comments last year about not wanting premium-seat clientele to have to sit next to the riff-raff, if you will, who buy tickets on the secondary market.

And Trost has been conspicuously quiet on the netting issue, declining comment to the Daily News through Yankees spokespeople over the last two years.

Though he did speak to the New York Times a couple of months ago on the subject, sounding as if he were more concerned about the protests of some fans sitting in the highroller seats about having to look through netting than he was about the safety issue itself.

Given the seriousness of the matter on this occasion, however, I thought Hal Steinbrenner would make a point of making a statement to the fans about taking steps to prevent another such incident.

The thing is, Yankee people privately say the organization has looked into various types of nettings, wanting something that will be the least distracting to the fans’ viewing experience as possible.

Of course, like the Mets, who installed new netting during the AllStar break, the Yankees were already being pushed on this matter by the threat of legislation, as City Councilman Rafael Espinal continues to go forward with a bill that would make it law in this city to have netting all the way to each foul pole.

In any case, I believe the Yankees were already preparing to have the new netting in place by Opening Day of next season, but even that’s not good enough now.

They have the money — duh — and the wherewithal to have at least some type of new netting in place by the time the team returns home on Monday. What the heck, they put up and then take down temporary netting every day during batting practice.

But clearly they have no such intention.

In any case, the reaction of other teams has made it certain the incident at the Stadium will have a lasting impact. Ten teams already had extended their netting over the last two seasons, and I have to believe the other 20 will follow suit by next season, as public pressure will continue to build.

At that point, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred will be off the hook for not being willing to mandate higher levels of safety, despite players urging him to take action for years, as Chase Headley said Wednesday.

MLB people have told me privately that Manfred was for more safety but felt he couldn’t tell teams to take action that they feared might upset some of their high-paying customers. Like the Yankees.

Over the last couple of years those same MLB people believed that, as the issue continued to receive more media attention, individual clubs would have little choice but to add the netting.

They also knew it probably would take a high-profile incident to make it happen, and prayed it wouldn’t be something fatal.

Well, who knows what the longterm effect will be on the two-yearold girl who was struck in the face? Everyone in baseball felt sickened at the thought of it, and I’m sure the people who run the Yankees felt as bad or worse than anybody.

Yet it was four other teams, not them, who promised it wouldn’t happen again.

JUSTIN TIME

Justin Verlander has pitched so well for the Astros that manager A.J. Hinch has lined him up as the Game 1 starter in the ALDS, ahead of their incumbent ace, Dallas Keuchel.

Verlander will make one more regular-season start, on Wednesday, which is bad news for the Yankees in that he won’t make a start in the Astros’ four-game series against the Red Sox next weekend that ends the season.

Giving Verlander the nod is at least partly about Keuchel’s inability to recapture the brilliance he pitched with early in the season. Since returning from the disabled list due to a neck injury (though some baseball people believe the Astros just didn’t want to call it a shoulder injury), Keuchel is 4-5 with a 4.50 ERA in 11 starts.

The former Cy Young winner has been better lately, pitching to a 3.20 ERA in four September starts, but that still pales in comparison to the way he started the season, going 9-0 with a 1.67 ERA in 11 starts before his injury problem.

Meanwhile, Verlander seems to have turned back the clock since coming to the Astros, pitching brilliantly in his first three starts with his new team, carrying 97 mph velocity into the late innings.

In addition, said an AL scout, “The guy has big-time presence. He carries himself like a guy you want as your No. 1. He’s made that team believe again. You can see it in their play. What the Indians are doing is off the charts, but Houston can match up with anybody (in the playoffs) with Verlander on board.”

DAVIS LOVE

Wade Davis blew his first save of the season on Saturday…and I’m going to continue beating the drum for the Mets to sign him this winter, and try to win with a super pen of sorts in 2018.

Hey, he had to blow one at some point. Davis was 32-for-32 for the season before giving up a game-tying home run to Orlando Arcia in the ninth inning on Saturday and then a game-losing dinger to Travis Shaw in the 10th.

Nevertheless, Davis has been as much of a sure thing as anyone in the majors, which is what the Mets need next season after all of their bullpen issues this season.

As a free agent, Davis will command a big contract, though not the $80 million-plus that Aroldis Chapman or Kenley Jansen received last year.

And, yes, the Mets already will be paying A.J. Ramos and Jeurys Familia some $7 million a year, but can either one of those guys really be considered lock-down closers?

Familia has the overpowering stuff but who knows what he’ll be coming off that surgery for a blood clot near his shoulder. As it is, his inability to throw strikes at times has proven troubling.

Both Familia and Ramos are free agents after next season, anyway, so put Davis in place for three or four years and build the pen around him.

If that’s too much money for the Mets to commit to the pen, they could always trade either Ramos or Familia, while hoping some of the young, power arms they acquired in July and August blossom into reliable relievers.

GM Sandy Alderson is going to have to overspend on at least a couple of big names in the freeagent market if the Mets are serious about trying to win next season. Davis might be the best money he can spend on anybody.

SOME CAPTAIN

Not a very distinguished start for Marlins owner Derek Jeter, according to a report in the Miami Herald on Friday.

If Jeter wants to clean house, that’s his prerogative — though firing the likes of Tony Perez, Andre Dawson, Jeff Conine, and Jack McKeon, who are more ceremonial figures than anything else, seems rather unnecessary.

But if Jeter is going to be the man in charge in Miami, he should least be willing to do the dirty work himself. Instead, according to the Herald, he ordered David Samson to do the firings — after making it clear Samson wouldn’t be staying on as team president.

That takes some chutzpah.