The baseball world was harrowed earlier this week when a foul ball struck a young girl in the face at Yankee Stadium. Thankfully, the young fan at last report was recovering in a local hospital. The incident has renewed calls for the holdout teams to expand protective netting, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated he intends to renew his efforts to that end. 

On Thursday, three of those teams announced plans to put more netting in place. First, the Cincinnati Reds announced netting will be expanded at Great American Ball Park. Here's the full statement from the club: 

The Cincinnati Reds plan to install additional netting at Great American Ball Park for the 2018 season, extending new netting to the end of each dugout and replacing the existing netting behind home plate.

The Reds' ongoing commitment to providing the best ballpark experience includes maintaining the safety and security of our fans.

The expanded netting will be installed during the offseason and will be in place by Opening Day 2018, when the Reds take on the Washington Nationals at 4:10 p.m. ET.

The existing netting meets Major League Baseball's recommended guidelines, and the new netting will go beyond the standards established by the Commissioner's Office.

A few hours later, it was reported the San Diego Padres will also extend the netting at Petco Park next season. The team has since confirmed the ballpark change. Here is their statement:

Following several months of planning, the San Diego Padres announced today that they will install additional netting during the offseason at Petco Park that will extend to the end of each dugout.  The increased safety measures will be in place prior to Opening Day in 2018 when the Padres host the Milwaukee Brewers on March 29.

The Padres will continue to proactively evaluate all safety practices at Petco Park to ensure the security and well-being of our fans at the best ballpark in America.

Not long after that, the Seattle Mariners announced they too will extend the netting at their home ballpark, Safeco Field. They hope to have the expanded netting in place by the start of next season. From MLB.com's Greg Johns:

"This is an issue that we've been concerned about for some time," Mariners president Kevin Mather said. "We still have some details to work out, but the bottom line is expanded netting at Safeco Field is going to happen."  

Furthermore, the Colorado Rockies say they are in the process of exploring the feasibility of expanded netting at Coors Field, and will make a decision during the offseason.

The Reds, Padres, and Mariners are making a wise, if belated decision, and one hopes that the remaining clubs who haven't done as the league office has recommended will soon do likewise. As our own Matt Snyder recently wrote, there's no good reason not to.