A more hitter-friendly Citi Field on tap?

ST. LOUIS -- Sandy Alderson's vision of transforming spacious PETCO Park into a more hitter-friendly environment stalled when the Padres were sold and his tenure as chief executive officer abruptly ended.

The best Alderson could manage before the 2006 season was to pull the centerfield fence in roughly 15 to 20 feet. The Padres did hit 21 more homers at PETCO, but that probably was due to the addition of Adrian Gonzalez rather than the CEO's minor trim.

Five years later, Alderson is now planning to give Citi Field a far more extensive makeover, and the details of that blueprint began leaking out before last night's 6-5 loss in St. Louis.

Josh Satin, who replaced the injured Lucas Duda, delivered a pinch-hit, two-run double in the third inning that put the Mets in front, 4-2. But the Cardinals went ahead 6-4 on David Freese's three-run homer off Pedro Beato in the seventh.

Duda was forced to leave the game due to dizziness after colliding with a rightfield fence post in the first inning. Duda, in chasing down Albert Pujols' long fly ball, didn't realize where he was and crashed hard into the post. He stayed in, but later was removed for Satin in the third.

The day after Alderson said that serious discussions were under way about changing Citi's dimensions, the GM huddled with a handful of players to talk about the proposed alterations.

The tentative plan appears to involve adding an additional eight-foot fence in front of the current concrete wall in leftfield, with five to 10 feet of space that could include additional seating within the two barriers. The distance to center will remain 408 feet, but the power alleys will be shorter, and the Mo Zone in right will be framed off by another fence, creating a bigger picnic area beneath the overhanging upper deck.

R.A. Dickey, one of the players who spoke with Alderson, said that there's "nothing in stone." But the detailed nature of these discussions suggests that there is tentative plan in place with the Mets hoping to complete it next month.

"When you hit a ball good, you want to be rewarded for it," David Wright said. "Hopefully these changes kind of help you out with that."

In Tuesday night's conversation, Alderson explained the Mets' desire to make Citi Field a more "neutral" ballpark rather than the pitcher's haven it was originally constructed to be. But the GM also added that "offense is appealing, offense sells" and he believed the current dimensions have become "overwhelming" to the psyche of the Mets.

Exhibit A is Wright, who hit 33 home runs in 2008 -- the last season of Shea Stadium -- and 10 the following year, when Citi first opened. Wright recovered to smack 29 homers in 2010, including 12 at home, and has five of his 14 this season at Citi. While Wright has been reluctant to blame the ballpark for his offensive struggles, he did say Wednesday that it does not work for him.

"I think that one of the things that played to my strength at Shea was being able to drive the ball to right-center," he said. "You really got to hit it at Citi Field to get it out there.

"It's obviously welcome because I'm not great at pulling the ball with a lot of power . . . If they change the dimensions like has been kind of hinted at, I don't think that could do anything but help my strengths."

The other consideration is how it will affect the Mets' pitching staff. "I didn't see anything in [Alderson's] pseudo presentation to alarm me as a pitcher," Dickey said. "All the data you're accumulating, there's no exact science to it . . . I think they're trying to be careful and consider all that."