The New York Mets today officially unveiled the plans for revising the dimensions of Citi Field, a cavernous stadium where the home run has been an all-too infrequent occurrence.

From Mets.com, here is the official description of what the organization will do at the ballpark, which just completed its second season as a replacement for Shea Stadium:

The Mets are moving in portions of the outfield wall at Citi Field as much as 12 feet and lowering the height of the home run line to 8 feet throughout the outfield. The outfield wall will become blue in 2012 concurrent with the Mets 50th Anniversary season. The home run line and distance markers will remain orange.

The Mets will erect a new wall in left field starting between the New Era and Caesars signs and angled to the Citi sign in left-cente rfield (see renderings below). The new wall will be closer to home plate by approximately 4 feet in left field and up to approximately 12 feet in deep left-centerfield.

A new wall will start in right-centerfield and extend toward the bullpen, and be as much as approximately 11 feet closer to home plate. The fence in front of the Mo’s Zone/Modell’s Clubhouse will move in approximately 10 feet. The distances from home plate to centerfield and the foul poles in left field and right field will remain the same.

Only two major league stadiums allowed fewer home runs per game than the 1.33 Citi Field surrendered in 2011. San Diego’s PETCO Park gave up 1.23 per game, and San Francisco’s AT&T Park gave up just 1.00.

“Offense is exciting for many fans,” general manager Sandy Alderson said. “Maybe it will be slightly more entertaining.”

Better idea, Sandy. Build a better team than the 77-85 collection that finished 25 games out of first place in the NL East in 2011. No matter how big — or small — the ballpark, people will only show up and enjoy themselves if you win.

 

“We’re targeting to try to fit in, to be more normal or more on average with everybody,” Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said.

At their first offseason comments, the Mets said it was too soon to tell whether they would be competitive to re-sign free agent Jose Reyes. General manager Sandy Alderson said he expected David Wright will remain with the Mets next season.

The new fence will be erected in front of the ballpark’s daunting 16-foot black fence, which became known as “The Great Wall of Flushing.”

“You just keep looking at that thing, and that left-field wall kept getting higher and higher,” Alderson said.

According to STATS LLC, Citi Field was last in the major leagues in home runs during its first three seasons with an average of 1.43 per game. The ballpark’s 3.78 ERA was the sixth-lowest in the major leagues.

“Was Citi Field my favorite park to hit in? I’d be lying to you if I said it was,” Wright said in comments made through the Mets. “Sure it was frustrating when you hit a ball good and you didn’t get the results.”

Right-center field is being brought in from 415 feet to 398, although the new sign doesn’t match up with the same angle as the old one. Left field comes in from 371 to 358 — with about 100 seats being added behind the new fence in left.

The “Mo’s Zone” fence in right field is being pulled in, creating even more of an overhang from the second deck. About 40 additional seats will be in that area.

“I think it’s going to be good for everybody,” outfielder Jason Bay said through the Mets. “I think cutting down on the space in the outfield will help improve the defense which in turn should help the pitching.”

Alderson, hired a year ago, revised the dimensions recommended by his predecessor, Omar Minaya.

“We didn’t want to completely alter the ballpark and make it into the proverbial bandbox,” Alderson said. “So that required looking at various dimensions and coming up with something based on home-run rates and park factors and so forth that was more or less neutral as between pitching and hitting, somewhere in the middle of all the ballparks.”

Wright hit .279 at home with 22 homers, 103 RBIs and 179 strikeouts in the first three seasons at Citi Field, down from a .335 average at home with 37 homers, 118 RBIs and 105 strikeouts in the final three years at Shea Stadium.

“I don’t want to give you the impression that we’ve done this for David or we’ve done this for Ike (Davis) or we’ve done this for anybody in particular,” Alderson said. “It’s really about having a more neutral ballpark and maybe to even some extent, given that I think offense is exciting for many fans, maybe it will be slightly more entertaining.”

Alderson said the Mets projected they would have hit 81 more home runs at Citi Field over the last three seasons with the new dimensions and could have given up 70 more. During three years at Citi Field, there were only nine opposite-field home runs by left-handed hitters — and none by the Mets.

“One explanation is we just haven’t had any left-handed hitters that are strong enough to hit it out there,” Alderson said. “Another explanation is that our left-handed power hitters have just decided that’s not a good percentage and have more or less given up on that possibility.”

Alderson compared the changes to the ones at Detroit’s Comerica Park, where the average increased from 0.80 home runs from 2000-02 to 1.06 since, according to STATS LLC. After the 2002 season, the left-center field wall was moved from 395 to 370 feet.

Alderson said pitching coach Dan Warthen supported the changes.

“His point was maybe our pitchers got a little complacent here and it had an affect on the road as well,” Alderson said, “so he felt that these dimensions, that they were fair, would force our guys to maybe bear down a little more here than they have.”

On other topics:

—Wilpon said “there’s not a deadline or there’s not a date certain that anything has to be done” for selling minority interests in the team.

—Alderson predicted Reyes’ free agency “is going to be a slow process” and added “we’re not going to punt 2012 if Jose doesn’t re-sign.”

—Asked whether he could say with certainty Wright would be back next year, Alderson responded: “I couldn’t say that with any degree of certainty about any player that we have,” then paused and added, “Do I think he’ll be a Met next year? Yes.”

—Alderson said the bullpen was a priority and that he might shift some of the $100 million to $110 million budgeted for payroll next season to amateur draft signing bonuses.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The New York Mets will reconfigure their outfield fences next season in a bid to boost offense at their 3-year-old Citi Field ballpark.

The Mets said Monday that not only will they bring the walls in by as many as 12 feet (3.6m), they will lower the height of the home run-defining barriers to eight feet (2.4m).

“We’re targeting to try to fit in, to be more normal or more on average with everybody,” Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said of the changes, which will allow for some 100 new seats in left field.

In left field the new fence — blue with an orange line at the top — will be erected in front of the current imposing 16-foot black fence dubbed “The Great Wall of Flushing”.

“You just keep looking at that thing, and that left-field wall kept getting higher and higher,” general manager Sandy Alderson said of the current wall’s intimidating effect.

Mets slugger David Wright hit .279 at home with 22 homers, 103 RBIs and 179 strikeouts in the club’s first three seasons at Citi Field, down from a .335 average at home with 37 homers, 118 RBIs and 105 strikeouts in their final three years at Shea Stadium.

Alderson said the move isn’t intended to benefit Wright or any other Mets player specifically.

“It’s really about having a more neutral ballpark and maybe to even some extent, given that I think offense is exciting for many fans, maybe it will be slightly more entertaining,” Alderson said.

Alderson said that Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen thinks the change could also benefit the team’s pitching staff.

“His point was maybe our pitchers got a little complacent here and it had an effect on the road as well,” Alderson said, “so he felt that these dimensions, that they were fair, would force our guys to maybe bear down a little more here than they have.”

The Mets won’t be the first team to move the walls in a new-ish venue.

The Detroit Tigers brought in their fences at the three-year-old Comerica Park in 2003.

NEW YORK — The New York Mets revealed dramatic dimension changes to Citi Field on Monday that should mean the home team belting more than 25 additional home runs in 2012.

After Citi Field produced the third-fewest homers in the National League last season, Mets officials decided to reduce the in-play surface area by 2 percent, general manager Sandy Alderson said. The playing surface beyond 300 feet from home plate is being reduced by 5 percent.

“Any time you talk to a hitter about making a park more hitter-friendly, it’s a thing that we’re all for,” said Mets third baseman David Wright. “I very briefly looked at the pictures and those dimensions and everything. It just looks, obviously, fair.”

Alderson said the ballpark should lie roughly in the middle of NL stadiums in terms of homer friendliness after the changes. He added that there should be a disproportionate benefit to the Mets from the perspective that home players may have been psychologically deflated by the imposing previous dimensions, which included a 16-foot wall in left-field and a right-center alley that measured 415 feet.

“You’d be lying if you said you enjoyed hitting at Citi Field,” Wright said. “I don’t think anybody would say they enjoyed hitting in such a pitchers’ ballpark. I don’t think we ever looked at the field and it intimidated us. But obviously it’s frustrating at times when you hit a ball good and you don’t see the results that you want to see.”

The reconfigured outfield wall will be a uniform eight feet in height. The dimensions from left to right are: 335-358-385-408-398-375-330.

The old measurements, although not precisely in the same spots, were: 335-371-384-408-415-378-330.

Citi Field allowed 1.33 homers per game last season, which ranked 14th of 16 National League ballparks, ahead of only San Francisco (1.00) and San Diego (1.23).

While noting that the Mets did not incorporate data about the trajectory of the balls put in play into their study — making the numbers slightly less precise — the team nonetheless determined the Mets would have hit 81 additional homers over the three years Citi Field has been open using the revised dimensions. Opponents would have hit 70 more homers, Alderson said.

Alderson noted the ballpark had only nine opposite-field homers to left field in three years — all by opposing players.

To appease fans critical of the ballpark’s lack of recognition of the club’s history, the new wall will be blue. The old wall has been a blackish shade referred to as soot, which is not in the team’s color palette.

The new dimensions certainly should benefit Mets power hitters such as Wright, Ike Davis and Jason Bay, although Alderson insisted the changes were not designed for any particular player.

“I don’t want to give you the impression we’ve done this for David, or we’ve done this for Ike, or we’ve done this for anybody in particular,” Alderson said. “It’s really about having a more neutral ballpark — and maybe even to some extent, given that I think offense is exciting for many fans, maybe it’ll be slightly more entertaining.”

“I’d like to think that I’m pretty good at going gap to gap,” Wright said. “One of my biggest strengths, I think, is going the other way into right-center field. Hopefully this will help me with one of my strengths.”

Said Bay: “I think it’s going to be good for everybody. I think cutting down on the space in the outfield will help improve the defense which in turn should help the pitching.”

As for the impact on pitchers, Alderson said pitching coach Dan Warthen suggested the reduced dimensions could have a positive impact on his staff. Warthen has asserted that Citi Field’s formerly spacious dimensions perhaps prompted Mets pitchers to be more careless and not execute quality pitches because they figured the ballpark’s size would keep the ball in play.

“His point was that maybe our pitchers got a little complacent here and it had an effect on the road as well,” Alderson said. “He felt that these dimensions, if they were fair, would force our guys to maybe bear down more here than they have.”

Construction may begin in a month or wait until after the winter, chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said.

Because the original left-field wall that measures 16 feet is structural and cannot be removed, a new wall will be built in front of the old wall. Two rows of seats will be added between the old and new walls in left-center, accommodating 100 people.

The “Mo’s Zone” nook in right field also will be removed, resulting in another 40 seats in that area.

Because the dimensions in the extreme left-field corner by the foul pole will be unchanged, the old wall that measures 16 feet will be the structure in play in that corner. An orange line will be painted halfway up the wall, at eight feet, prompting umpires to need to determine whether a ball has cleared the line.

Wilpon said the reliance on umpires’ rulings should be a non-issue. He reasoned that the padding above the orange line will be removed, leaving a bare concrete wall, and resulting in a different bounce for a ball that strikes the wall above the line for a homer as opposed to a ball in play that strikes the padded wall below the line.

Adam Rubin covers the Mets for ESPNNewYork.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Follow Adam Rubin on Twitter: @AdamRubinESPN

The fences are coming in next year at Citi Field.

The New York Mets announced today they are moving the walls in by as much as 12 feet, lowering the height to 8 feet and changing the color to blue.

According to STATS LLC, Citi Field was last in the major leagues in home runs during its first three seasons with an average of 1.43 per game. The ballpark’s 3.78 ERA was the sixth-lowest in the major leagues.

Faced with a 16-foot fence in left that became known as “The Great Wall of Flushing,” David Wright’s power numbers dropped sharply. After averaging 30 homers per year in the final three seasons at Shea Stadium, he averaged 18 a year at Citi Field.

The Mets are adding about 140 seats as part of the changes.

The New York Mets are moving the
outfield fences at Citi Field closer to home plate and lowering
the height of the home-run line to increase offense in the
three-year-old-stadium.

The team will move the left- and right-field fences in by
as much as 12 feet and reduce the home-run line to eight feet,
the team announced on its Twitter page. The alterations will add
roughly 100 seats atop the left-field wall and expand the
outdoor eating area in right field.

The Mets haven’t finished higher than fourth since moving
into the $800 million stadium in 2009. The club hit 108 home
runs last season, fifth lowest in Major League Baseball. Since
2009, the Mets have hit an MLB-low 331 home runs.

“We’re not looking necessarily to gain an advantage,”
Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said last month on the Mets’
website. “But at the same time, I think there is some sense
that the park is a little more overwhelming to a team that
spends half its time there.”

The field’s current dimensions are 335 feet down the left-
field line, 408 feet to center and 330 feet down the right-field
line, according to the team’s website. The wall is 16 feet high
in most places, and has a deepened recess in right-center that
measures 415 feet from the plate.

After an Aug. 21 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, Mets
pitcher R.A. Dickey blamed the field’s dimensions for denying
teammate Jason Bay a go-ahead seventh-inning home run, the New
York Post reported. The ball hit off the top of the left-field
wall.

“Any other ballpark in the universe, that’s a home run,”
Dickey told the newspaper.

The Mets have hit 14 fewer home runs in the last three
seasons than the next closest team, the Houston Astros. The New
York Yankees, who also moved into a new stadium in 2009, have
hit 667 in the same period, more than twice the Mets’ total.

Mets third baseman David Wright averaged about 29 home runs
in his final three seasons in Shea Stadium, the team’s home
before Citi Field. In three years in the new stadium, the five-
time All-Star is averaging about 18 home runs.

The Mets wouldn’t be the first team to move the outfield
walls in a new stadium. In 2003, the Detroit Tigers made changes
to three-year-old Comerica Park, moving the fence in left-center
25 feet closer to home plate, according to the team website.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Eben Novy-Williams at
enovywilliam@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net.