In a move to better protect their fans from being struck by a wayward baseball or a shard from a broken bat, the Mariners will expand the protective netting on the lower bowl of Safeco Field for the 2018 season. The majority of teams in Major League Baseball have made similar extensions to the netting after several fans were struck by foul balls last season.
The Mariners announced their intentions in the middle of the 2017 season, but have released more details to the expansion. The plan is for netting to extend to the outside ends of each dugout and reach a height of 11 feet above the playing surface.