Lynch ready to prove he still has it as a starter despite rocky first step

KANSAS CITY -- As Daniel Lynch IV ascended into his higher-leverage relief role this year for the Royals, he’s come to enjoy pitching out of the bullpen. But he’s never felt resigned to being a reliever for life. Starting has always been something he’s wanted to earn his way back into doing.

Now the opportunity is here again.

The Royals are giving Lynch a shot in the rotation again, a decision made out of necessity because of injuries that have not only evaporated the depth throughout the year -- but also heading into 2027. But they also wouldn’t have felt confident in that decision if Lynch hadn’t pitched well all year out of the bullpen, posting a 1.96 ERA as a reliever.

Friday didn’t go exactly the way Lynch envisioned it, as he was tagged with four runs in 1 2/3 innings in the Royals’ 6-4 loss to the Cubs at Kauffman Stadium. He allowed back-to-back two-out singles in the second inning before walking Dansby Swanson to load the bases. Pete Crow-Armstrong pulled a softly hit ground ball in the hole between first and second, which second baseman Michael Massey got a glove on, but his throw was not on target to Lynch running to cover first base, allowing a second run to score.

Reliever Jose Cuas allowed a two-run single to Seiya Suzuki to give Lynch his final line.

“As a competitor, don’t want to give up runs,” Lynch said. “You want to put your team in the best position to win. So that was disappointing. And also just finally getting the opportunity to do this again, I really wanted to go out there and make a statement just on a personal level.

“... Bases-loaded with one of the best hitters in the world. Made a pitch, and it was a really tough play. That’s just the way the game goes sometimes.”

Friday wasn’t a spot start or one-off bullpen game, even though Mason Black allowed two runs in five innings of bulk relief. The Royals will roll with Lynch in the rotation for the foreseeable future, building up his workload. His season high in innings is two and season high in pitches is 37 -- all the way back on April 1. He threw 35 against the Cubs, the pitch limit set to increase each time he starts. The Royals want to avoid using Lynch in the ‘pen in between his outings, but in an emergency, he could be used for an inning.

This is a longer-term move for the Royals, thinking ahead to ‘27. They understand that it puts the bullpen in a tough position now without Lynch as their high-leverage lefty; in fact, there are no lefties in the ‘pen right now.

But after watching their depth disappear this year, they have a lot of work to do to replenish their pitching staff this offseason. If Lynch can be a part of that depth again, they’d like to figure it out now.

“Our hope is that he stays in [the rotation] for the rest of the season, and we’ll see,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “We don’t know that he’ll be built up completely to throw six, seven, eight innings at this time of year with a decent workload under his belt already out of the bullpen. We have to be responsible with that. But if he takes this and runs with it, that’s something we can consider.”

The 29-year-old came up as a starter, and made 51 career starts across his first three seasons in the big leagues before the Royals transitioned him to the bullpen.

“When you fail at something, you want to try again,” Lynch said. “So I’m grateful that the opportunity came up. … Grateful for the people who have helped me. I’ve had some really good people in my corner that have really helped me get better. I’m just grateful for the journey.”

Offseason changes with Lynch’s delivery have unlocked a tick more velocity and a bit more swing and miss, which has allowed him to thrive in the ‘pen this season.

A mindset shift with aggressiveness and confidence has helped, too.

“I have to give a lot of credit to [pitching coach Brian] Sweeney because he was the one who instilled this in me,” Lynch said. “He was like, ‘You can throw anybody your changeup. You can throw anybody your sinker, anybody your slider.’ Then I started doing it. It worked. And the confidence grew.”

Lynch hopes to keep that same mindset and style as he retakes his rotation role. He tried to view Friday’s start as a relief outing, not going too deep on the scouting report and trusting catcher Carter Jensen with the plan like he does late in games.

“That’s another thing that I want to hammer down,” Lynch said. “When I go out there, I want to be the same guy I’ve been all year.”