The Orioles are changing around the Camden Yards left field fences again

It’s going to be about halfway between what it was and what it is now.

The Great Wall of Baltimore is coming down. Orioles general manager Mike Elias announced in a news conference on Friday afternoon that the expanded left field fence dimensions will be changing after three seasons. The new fence will be somewhere in between where things used to be and where things are now.

In the conference where he revealed the coming change to the park’s dimensions, Elias used the word “overcorrected” when talking about the change that created Walltimore. That much was apparent after seeing the substantial impact to the home run potential of some of the team’s right-handed hitters.

The graphical rendering released by the Orioles of the coming changes to the dimensions:

I think this was pretty much inevitable from within about two weeks of seeing the soon-to-be-former dimensions in action. There is still a substantial cutout compared to what there was up through 2021, but it’s no longer quite as drastic.

In addition to the wall height coming down from 13 feet to eight feet, allowing the possibility of robbed home runs in the area, the fences are coming in closer by about 14 feet in the left field area and by about 26 feet as things move towards left-center field and the bullpens. The left-center area will also have fences that are now down just shy of seven feet at 6’11”.

There won’t be as many cheap home runs as there used to be, and there also won’t be any “double high off the wall at 384 feet” stuff that has plagued several Orioles righties, probably none more than Ryan Mountcastle. The O’s will have to think about how the changed dimensions will impact any new pitchers they might choose to pursue this offseason. On the other side of the same coin, it won’t hurt as they true to lure the righty-batting outfielder that Elias says he wants.

According to Elias, the new open space will not result in any seats being added back in to that area. Hopefully it’s more gracefully designed than what they’re about to replace and it doesn’t end up being a big eyesore. In a sign that the marketing department is really not going to let go of what should have been a fun idea with a limited duration, you can see in the above graphic that there is going to be a new dedicated platform for Mr. Splash.