After the awful incident in Houston last May when a foul ball off the bat of the Cubs’ Albert Almora Jr. hit a little girl in the head, teams began to discuss extending protective netting past the end of dugouts, where they were located beginning the 2019 season.
Several teams, including the White Sox, Nationals and Astros, did so before the end of the 2019 season. A number of others announced they’d have extended netting in place for the 2020 season.
Commissioner Rob Manfred, in an interview with CNBC Wednesday, said that all 30 teams will have some form of extended netting in place for Opening Day 2020:
The protective netting will extend “substantially beyond the end of the dugout,” Manfred told CNBC at the league’s winter meetings in San Diego.