Sources: Royals to move in fences at Kauffman Stadium - ESPN

The Kansas City Royals are moving the majority of their outfield fence in by 10 feet, drastically changing the offensive environment of a notoriously bad stadium for home run hitting into one the team hopes will play as league average, sources told ESPN.

The decision, which the Royals are expected to announce Tuesday, comes after years of discussion by Kansas City's front office about tinkering with dimensions and months after the organization commissioned its analytics department to find a palatable middle ground between the fly ball dead zone of Kauffman Stadium and other stadiums where home runs soar at extreme rates.

«We want a neutral ballpark where if you hit a ball well, it should be a home run,» Royals general manager J.J. Picollo told ESPN. «The second they start feeling like they can't get the ball out of the ballpark, they start changing their swing. I watched it for years and years and years, and I just felt like this is the time to try to push it and see if everything we felt for however many years is accurate.»

While the Royals will keep center field at 410 feet, they plan to taper in the fences starting in the power alleys, which will be shortened from 389 feet to 379, sources said. The fences will continue on that path, 9 to 10 feet shorter, nearly all the way to the corners, where the 330-foot foul poles will remain. The height of the fence will also be shortened from 10 feet to 8½.

Kauffman has played as a slightly above-average offensive park because the size of the outfield — which was second only to Coors Field — promoted more doubles and triples. The distinct suppression of home runs, however, left the Royals concerned that hitters were changing their approaches on the road, consciously or