Daniel Lynch’s bounce back has been a big win for the Kansas City Royals organization
In an instant, the young foursome of pitchers selected at the top of the Kansas City Royals’ 2018 draft class came to represent hope, potential and expectation.
Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar and Kris Bubic became measuring sticks for the organization’s scouting and player development chops.
Lynch, the 6-foot-6 left-hander out of the University of Virginia, stood out as the one of the four with the highest ceiling.
When he made his major-league debut earlier this spring and stumbled badly out of the gate and went back to the minors after three starts, it prompted knee-jerk reactions that called into question everything from the Royals amateur scouting and player development to the ability of the major-league coaching staff to coax the best out of talented young arms.
Since his return from the minors, Lynch has shown the ability that made him a potential flag-bearer for the highly-touted draft class.
Through Monday night, Lynch has been very impressive in his six starts since returning from a stint in the minors. He allowed one run in five innings Monday, getting the victory in the Royals’ 7-1 win over the Astros in Houston.
He’s allowed just nine earned runs in 35 2/3 innings for a 2.27 ERA to go with a .227 opponents’ average in those six starts.
“I think just from my three games in the big leagues I kind of got a better idea of what works and what doesn’t,” Lynch said. “So I think when I went down it was a lot easier to be like, even if I went five scoreless, I missed over the plate with a ton of fastballs that probably are getting hit.
“Things like that where you actually understand what it’s like to be up here. I think that was really helpful to help me evaluate my outings regardless of what the outcome was.”
In discussing Lynch’s turnaround, Royals manager Mike Matheny lauded Lynch for what he described as an “incredible display of coachability, adaptability and talent.”
Changing course
Lynch, the 34th overall draft pick in 2018, features a fastball in the mid to upper 90s along with an above average slider and changeup to go with a still developing curveball.
Before the season started, Baseball America ranked him the 25th-best prospect heading into this spring, while MLBPipeline.com ranked him No. 29.
While announcing Lynch’s promotion to the majors and immediate insertion into the starting rotation in early May, Royals general manager Dayton Moore said, “There’s no denying the quality and the electricity of his pitches. That’s undeniable.”
Then the Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers jumped on Lynch in a two-start stretch that forced the Royals’ hand. In those two starts, he lasted a total of 3 1/3 innings and allowed 12 runs (11 earned) on 14 hits and one walk.
It became clear that subtle differences in Lynch’s pitching delivery let opposing hitters know which pitches were coming.
The Royals sent him down to fix the problems.
“I’m proud of our coaching staff,” Matheny said. “That wasn’t easy. There was a lot that was going to be thrown on Daniel when he went back, so there was a clear plan.”
Matheny was quick to point to the continuity between major-league pitching coach Cal Eldred and bullpen coach Larry Carter and Triple-A pitching Dane Johnson and director of pitching performance Paul Gibson.
At the same time, Matheny recognized what he described as a difficult organizational decision to pivot and send Lynch back to the minors so quickly.
“I really respect Dayton, Mr. Sherman and everybody that goes into these decisions to (conclude) this is what should be best for this young man at this point in his career,” Matheny said, referring to Royals CEO and chairman John Sherman.
Making fixes
When Lynch had to go back to the minors, it wasn’t as much of a shock inside the organization as it may have been to fans and those on the outside.
“I don’t believe anybody is the finished product when they get up there,” assistant general manager JJ Picollo said in a recent interview with The Star. “It’s just a matter of are they finished enough that they can compete. Are they finished enough that they can deal with some adversities? And if you feel good about those two things, then you can move them up. Along the way, they’re going to get a lot better as they get deeper into their careers.”
Picollo, who oversees the farm system, view it not as a question of whether they player is a finished product. It’s if he’s finished enough.
Picollo, who has more than 20 years in professional baseball as a scout and executive, knows that a player will experience an enormous amount of growth between their first year and third year in the majors.
Picollo points to a list of Hall of Fame pitchers who struggled early in their careers such as John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson and Jack Morris.
Morris pitched out of the bullpen and went back down to the minors before getting back into the rotation again.
“When you initially call them up, you know that they’re not the finished product, but there’s a judgment in there that they’re ready for this though,” Picollo said. “We can send them up.
“Sometimes we’re dead on and sometimes we’re not. The beauty of our system is you have options. A guy gets sent down, and we can address this.”
Nine out of ten times, the communication between the major-league pitching coach, Eldred, and the development staff remains simple and straightforward.
It’s Eldred saying here’s what we saw and here’s what needs to be addressed.
It might mean separation of hands over the pitching rubber. It might mean moving where the pitcher stands on the rubber. It might be a landing issue, the stride is too short or too long.
Sometimes it’s simply nerves and adrenaline that lead to atypical performance. Other times it’s a matter of re-addressing things they’ve been working on throughout the player’s time in the minors.
“In Lynch’s case, because of the tipping, there was a deeper discussion about what they were seeing, and how we need to address it,” Picollo said.
The Royals simplified Lynch’s delivery, and had him work exclusively out of the stretch for a few outings before progressing to the wind-up again. In the process, they focused on making sure he had a consistent delivery regardless of the type of pitch he was throwing.
Lynch has said the main thing he focused on in his last few Triple-A starts was just executing pitches, a sign he’d mentally moved on from the tipping issue. The results have certainly improve in the majors.
“In my career, that was the first time I experienced it where it was obvious that was happening and teams were capitalizing,” Picollo said. “It was something that clearly needed to be addressed and clearly has been corrected.”
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
