Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports that the Arizona Diamondbacks will use a humidor to store baseballs in 2018. The idea, as in Coors Field, is to keep balls from drying out in the arid western air, presumably cutting down on their flight and thus suppressing offense.
The Diamondbacks first considered using a humidor years ago, when Jerry Dipoto was the general manager. When Kevin Towers took over as GM the idea was shelved, as he was cool to the idea. Current GM Mike Hazen, however, confirmed that the team will use one for the upcoming season.
The Rockies began using their humidor in 2002, after stadium engineer Tony Cowell came up with the idea (neat story by the way!). Because of the elevation and how large the outfield is at Coors Field, offense remains high there, but following the installation of the humidor, home runs were reduced significantly. Back when a humidor was being considered for the Diamondbacks, a couple of studies came out suggesting that the offensive-suppressing effects of a humidor would be much greater in Phoenix than in Colorado, and could reduce home runs by as much as 38%. I suppose we’ll see.
In other news, J.D. Martinez hit a ton of homers in Arizona last year and most of them had a lot of room to spare. If the Dbacks are gonna make hitting home runs even harder next year, maybe they should look into a reunion.