Essentially unchanged since its debut in 2000, AT&T Park will have a new look this season. In conjunction with safety measures being followed throughout Major League Baseball, the Giants will install additional netting to help prevent injuries to fans sitting near the dugouts.

Consider it the latest in safety’s march to prominence in sports, from the ongoing concussion debate to the announcement that Ivy League football players will not be tackling each other in practice. Multiple lawsuits have been filed in the wake of frightening baseball incidents in 2015 alone.

When Commissioner Rob Manfred issued his netting directive in December, Giants executives initially balked at the notion. There have been no gravely serious foul ball-related injuries in the park’s history, and it is among the most intimate major-league settings. Manfred sent notice to all teams, and the way it was worded, it sounded like a recommendation, as if the teams could act as they pleased.

Behind the scenes, it was a mandate. Teams were not given a choice, and all 30 — including the A’s, who were told no adjustments are required — will be in compliance by Opening Day.

“I think it’s going to work well,” said Giants President Larry Baer. “One person has a devastating injury in any stadium, because the team didn’t act — that’s not acceptable. This is just the way things are going in sports.”

Baer said he knows some lower-deck fans will be offended at first, having enjoyed clear sight lines over the years, but he doesn’t see it being a long-term issue. He said the netting will be strong enough to block not only foul balls but also the flying shards of broken bats.

“We talk to people who prefer the netting, like the fans behind home plate, just from the safety standpoint,” he said. “I think for anyone, it’s going to be something they get used to rather quickly.”

The Giants further detailed the changes in an email to The Chronicle, saying the new design “extends protection to the home-plate edge of each dugout, while also raising the height of the net from 20 feet to 25 feet. Sight lines have generally been improved by removing several of the vertical support poles and the horizontal cross bar, in favor of much less obstructive cables.”

In comparison to other venues, the Giants’ approach would have to be considered minimal. The Minnesota Twins are among major-league teams to have more extensive netting, stretching all the way to the end of the dugouts at Target Field. Such developments are hardly news in Japan, where many ballparks have netting that extends from home plate all the way to the outfield corners.

As for the A’s ballpark, no reconfigurations were necessary.

Back to Gallery Giants to install additional netting at AT&T Park 4 1 of 4 Photo: Jeff Chiu, Associated Press 2 of 4 Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle 3 of 4 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle 4 of 4 Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle







“Major League Baseball did a survey of the netting that currently exists at our stadium and deemed that it was in compliance with their standards,” said David Rinetti, the team’s longtime vice president of stadium operations.

O.co Coliseum is known for its extensive foul territory, leaving fans at a more comfortable distance from home plate, but danger exists whenever a hard-hit foul ball goes into the stands. In July of 2015, A’s fan Gail Payne filed a class-action suit against Major League Baseball in Northern District of California federal court. Her Coliseum seat is in section 211, a second-deck location less vulnerable than those at field level, but hers was a more general complaint.

“Due to the fact that the protective netting behind the backstop is minimal, and does not extend to her seat, foul balls have shot into the stands around her more times than she can count,” alleged the complaint, which said the plaintiff is “constantly ducking and weaving to avoid getting hit by foul balls or shattered bats.” Payne asked not for money, but a move by MLB to install netting running the length of foul territory (from home plate to the foul poles) in all parks.

The suit was later amended to include all 30 MLB teams as defendants, citing a number of alarming incidents during the 2015 season. A woman suffered broken ribs and a partially collapsed lung when she was struck by a foul ball at Dodger Stadium. A fan at Yankee Stadium was sent to the hospital and needed 30 stitches after getting struck in the forehead. A Brewers fan at Milwaukee’s Miller Park suffered irreversible nerve damage, resulting in permanent numbness to the left side of her face. And a woman at Boston’s Fenway Park was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries when part of a shattered bat — that of the A’s Brett Lawrie — struck her in the face.

In October, MLB filed a motion to dismiss the suit. An MLB spokesman said Thursday that “the motion is fully briefed and oral argument is scheduled for later this month.”

Bruce Jenkins is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: bjenkins@sfchronicle.com Twitter @Bruce_Jenkins1