While the Giants finally seem to be clicking after wins in eight of their last 10 games, they still might have a glaring issue to address: the Oracle Park outfield fencing.
San Franciso lost Jung Hoo Lee for the season on May 12 after he separated his shoulder while chasing a ball into the chainlink outfield fence and fellow outfielders Austin Slater (concussion), Luis Matos (knee) and Mike Yastrzemski also have had their fair share of aches after collisions with the fence.
Jung Hoo Lee exited today's game after appearing to injure himself on a collision with the center field wall pic.twitter.com/ocXon6JI8F
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 12, 2024
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Speaking exclusively to The Mercury News’ Evan Webeck on Monday, Slater and Yastrzemski discussed their home ballpark and its potential safety hazards after the slew of collisions.
“It’s something that I think we need to talk about,” Slater told Webeck. “I mean, there’s other fields like that around the league. But we had three plays like that in the span of, what, three days? It’s something that I think was on [Giants general manager Pete Putila’s] mind. He was asking about it.
“I think if the front office believes that it’s something that could help, I would imagine that they’ll make a change. If they think it was just a freak play, maybe that didn’t have an impact, then maybe they won’t. I don’t feel super strongly about it one way or another. If there’s a way to reduce potential risk, then it’s worth exploring.”
Two days before Lee’s rookie season ended, Slater collided with the center field wall at Oracle Park.
San Francisco Giants
Jung Hoo Lee exited today's game after appearing to injure himself on a collision with the center field wall pic.twitter.com/ocXon6JI8F
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 12, 2024
He’s not alone in injuring himself in a collision with the wall, as Yastrzemski -- who has spent five years with San Francisco -- has collected his fair share of battle scars.
But in the same breath, Yastrzemski has learned how to navigate Oracle Park’s unique twists and turns -- something he thinks is a must for outfielders of all teams in all stadiums -- and attributes his teammates’ bad fortunes to poor luck.
“Obviously what’s happened is unfortunate and we don’t want that to happen at all, but I think the make of the fence isn’t really the pure reason for that,” Yastrzemski explained to Webeck. “It’s just bad luck. Slater probably hits his head on the wall there, regardless. Jung Hoo’s arm is still going to hit the wall when he’s coming down. So it’s not necessarily a construction issue. It’s just unfortunate accidents where guys are playing as hard as they possibly can and putting their bodies on the line. Sometimes that’s what happens.”
“Having already experienced that before, I tried to use my surroundings a little better and recognize that I could put a cleat in the wall to get myself going vertical. I think any outfielder will tell you no matter what wall is out there, you’ve got to figure out a way to play it. It’s just a matter of putting in as many reps and as much effort into know your surroundings and trying to play as safely and aggressively as possible.”
Slater sang a similar tune when assessing his history of concussions, and believes speeds, angles and situations can play a bigger role in outfield fence injuries rather than a ballpark’s makeup.
“Just to help you keep your body square,” Slater concluded. “I think what happened with me was my body went in (to the cutout) and my head just hit the top of the wall. Maybe there is something with the indent of the fence and how that can affect how you bounce off the wall. But I think one of my other concussions I ran into a flat-facing wall, too. A lot of it is just how your body is positioned when you hit it and how fast you’re going when you hit it.”
The Giants, 28-27, do not want to lose any more players to collisions with their Oracle Park walls -- that wouldn’t offer much of a home-field advantage.
Instead, as Slater suggests, San Franciso may make more tweaks to its stadium to avoid reoccurring issues.
After all, the Giants moved their open-and-exposed bullpens to their current outfield locations in 2020.
However, it’s there that the chainlink fences are implemented, as players in the bullpen would have to use televisions or peek over the wall to watch a game if there was padding instead.