Angels: Who will benefit the most from the lowered wall at Angel Stadium

The Los Angeles Angels made news on Tuesday by lowering the 18-foot wall in right field. Now, the wall is down to a much more hitter-friendly eight feet.

The Los Angeles Angels have been one of the busiest teams this off-season and have made several headlines with their multiple additions this offseason. Now, the Angels look primed to contend in a tough American League playoff picture.

The Angels continued to make headlines on Tuesday by announcing that the right-field wall, which originally stood at 18 feet, will be lowered down to eight feet. The tall home run boundary has been a trademark of Angel Stadium and has kept multiple home runs in the park for doubles and triples.

However, the wall itself is not going to be removed. Instead, with a new scoreboard, the Angels are moving the home run line down ten feet similar to the yellow home run line in center field at Chase Field.

Of course, this benefits the hitting of the Angels as they will no longer require 18+ feet of elevation on the ball to get it out. While this will not be a cause of drastic change, it will likely create a noticeable, slight difference in the offensive production at Angel Stadium. Which raises the question: who does it benefit the most?

• Shohei Ohtani

The direct name that jumps to everyone’s mind after hearing this news is new signing, Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani. Los Angeles has been giving every indication that the team plans on using Ohtani’s bat frequently in the lineup.

With Ohtani being left handed, lowering the wall obviously only increases his chances of getting the ball out of the park. Especially with his swing, Ohtani is going to likely have a few searing line drives that bounce off the top of the wall that would not have been a home run last season.

However, despite all of the speculation, this move is not made for Ohtani. According to the team, this decision was made before Ohtani signed with the Angels.

• Kole Calhoun

Kole Calhoun is another guy that is going to directly benefit from this change and has already faced the wrath of the 18-foot wall before.

Calhoun has the perfect swing that is just naturally built for line drives. While his power numbers have been impressive throughout the years, he has never been regarded as a really powerful guy. Instead, Calhoun has a knack for squaring the baseball up and delivering line drives in the gap.

Lowering the wall ten feet is going to result in at least three instances this year in which Calhoun would have had to settle for a double or triple.

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• Mike Trout

Although Mike Trout is not left-handed like the Ohtani or Calhoun, he has the knack to put the baseball all over the diamond and will undoubtedly benefit at some point throughout the year with this wall height change.

Trout is so strong that he can easily barrel up an away fastball to right center. Before, Trout may have had to settle for a triple off of the wall in the right-center gap. Now, Trout has a much better chance of muscling the ball out of the park.

• Robinson Cano

I had to throw one wild card addition in the mix. Although Robinson Cano is not on the Los Angeles Angels, he is very familiar with Angel Stadium with the Angels being in the same division as the Seattle Mariners.

Next: What is the Angels' ceiling in 2018?

Cano has that same sort of smooth, sweeping left-handed swing that can result in moon shots or searing line drives off of the wall. With this wall change, we may see more Robinson Cano home runs in Angel Stadium this season than any other visiting player.