The Blue Jays will extend protective netting at both the Rogers Centre and their spring training home in Dunedin, Fla., ahead of the 2020 season, the organization announced Tuesday.

The exact configuration is still being determined but the Jays are “committed to a plan that will see the netting extended further down the baselines at both ballparks next year,” according to a release from the club.

Fan safety is “paramount” to the Blue Jays, and visitors to either ballpark should be protected during games, Andrew Miller, the team’s executive vice president of business operations, said in a statement.

“Extending the protective netting at Rogers Centre and Dunedin Stadium is a clear next step for our organization and one that reflects our team’s values,” Miller said. “As fans and followers of the game, it is vitally important for us to preserve and enhance the live baseball experience while also ensuring everyone who visits our ballparks can do so safely.”

Read more:

Getting hit in the face with a foul ball could cost you. This Blue Jays fan learned the hard way

MLB to keep monitoring netting issue after child is hit

A look at baseball injuries from foul balls and broken bats

The netting at the Rogers Centre currently extends to the far end of each dugout. Major League Baseball announced in February 2018 that all 30 of its teams would extend the netting at their ballparks at least that far. The move came two years after the league officially recommended extending netting prior to the 2016 season.

Several fans have been severely injured by foul balls or shards of broken bats in recent years. In 2017, a 2-year-old girl suffered critical injuries when a foul ball hit her in the face at Yankee Stadium.

Last season, a 79-year-old woman died four days after she was struck in the head by a ball lined over the protective netting behind home plate at Dodger Stadium. Her death was the first in nearly 50 years directly attributed to a foul ball.

In late May, Chicago Cubs outfielder Albert Almora Jr. sent a line drive into the stands at Minute Maid Park in Houston, hitting a 2-year-old girl in the head and fracturing her skull. The girl was reportedly sitting in the third or fourth row, about three metres past where the netting ends.

“Right now, obviously, I want to put a net around the whole stadium,” Almora said after the game.

His thoughts were echoed by teammate Kris Bryant. “It’s so sad,” he told ESPN. “I don’t know what we can do. Let’s just put fences up around the whole field … I think any safety measures we can take to make sure fans are safe, we should do it.”

Almora and Bryant are two of many players who have called for more safety precautions. Hundreds of fans are struck by foul balls each year, with more injuries occurring as players get stronger.

Following the injury in Houston, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he did not expect teams to make changes to the protective netting around ballparks during the season but he expected conversations to continue about whether netting should be extended.

“Look, I think it is important that we continue to focus on fan safety,” Manfred told The Associated Press in June.

“If that means that the netting has to go beyond the dugouts, so be it. Each ballpark is different … There is a balance here. We do have fans that are vocal about the fact that they don’t want to sit behind nets. I think that we have struck the balance in favour of fan safety so far, and I think we will continue to do that going forward.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The Detroit Tigers were among the first to extend their netting further than the MLB minimum last year, down the first- and third-base lines. The Chicago White Sox and the Washington Nationals both extended protective netting to the foul poles earlier this season.

Other teams, including like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers, have also committed to more netting.

Tickets to Jays games, like other big-league teams, include disclaimers about fan safety.