Adjustments make Giants’ Oracle Park a little cozier
The Giants’ home field just got a little smaller.
Oracle Park’s outfield is shrinking as the Giants are moving their bullpens from foul territory to behind the stadium’s outfield wall, the team announced Thursday. One of the stadium’s iconic features, Triples Alley, is losing six feet of depth, dropping from 421 feet away from home plate to 415 feet.
The corner in left- center field will now measure at 399 feet, down from 404, while the center field fence will move from 399 feet to 391. The center field fence will also be shortened in height from 8 feet to 7 feet.
The decision to move the bullpens from foul territory to the outfield is giving the Giants a chance to create terraces that will be built into the bleachers.
The changes to the stadium’s dimensions aren’t drastic enough to turn Oracle Park from a pitcher’s paradise into a hitter’s park, but batters that do square up pitches and send them toward straightaway center field stand to benefit.
After two decades of having the bullpens on the playing field, the Giants elected to move them this offseason in an effort to increase player safety.
The Giants will build gates into the new outfield wall for pitchers to enter and exit the bullpens and will also create padded chain link openings in the wall that will provide viewing spots for players and fans.
A new home for the bullpens is not the only change coming to Oracle Park in 2020 as the Giants will also be one of seven teams to extend protective netting from behind home plate all the way to the foul poles. The decision to extend netting is part of a broader initiative across MLB to enhance fans’ safety.
• The Giants sent lefthander Garrett Williams to the Angels as the player to be named later in this week’s trade for infielder Zack Cozart and shortstop prospect Will Wilson. Williams was the Giants’ seventh-round pick in the 2016 draft and was rated the Giants’ No. 29 prospect at MLB.com.
• A year after selecting left-hander Travis Bergen, the Giants wrapped up the Winter Meetings by drafting right- hander Dany Jimenez out of Toronto’s
organization. A’S TRADE WITH PHILLIES
FOR RULE 5 INFIELDER » The A’s are on the hunt for a left-handed hitting middle infielder. They acted quick during Thursday’s Rule 5 draft at the Winter Meetings in San Diego, passing initially in the draft itself before trading cash considerations to the Phillies for left-handed hitting infielder Vimael Machin.
The Phillies had selected Machin, 26, from the Cubs organization. Machin played 129 combined games in Class AA and AAA, batting .295 with a .390 onbase percentage, seven
home runs and 65 RBIs.
MLB, UNION ANNOUNCE CHANGES TO DRUG POLICIES » Major League Baseball will begin testing for opioids and cocaine this spring, while marijuana has been removed from the list of drugs of abuse. Players who test positive will be assigned to a treatment plan, and only those who fail to cooperate with that prescribed plan will be subject to disciplinary actions. Those were the most significant changes to the drug prevention and treatment program announced by MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association.