Daniel Aloysius Lynch IV (born November 17, 1996) is an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

for the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2021.

Amateur career

Lynch played baseball at

Douglas S. Freeman High School Douglas S. Freeman High School is a public high school located in the West End of Henrico County, Virginia. It is operated by Henrico County Public Schools. History Part of Henrico County Public Schools,Henrico, Virginia Henrico is the name used by the U.S. Postal Service for several ZIP code areas in unincorporated parts of Henrico County, Virginia, surrounding the city of Richmond. "Other acceptable cities" listed by the USPS for parts of Henrico are Richmond, ...

. As a junior, he compiled a 0.97 ERA. After high school, he enrolled at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

where he played for the

Virginia Cavaliers baseball The Virginia Cavaliers baseball team represents the University of Virginia in NCAA Division I college baseball. Established in 1889, the team participates in the Coastal division of the Atlantic Coast Conference and plays its home games at Da ...

team. During his freshman year at Virginia, he appeared in 13 games with nine starts and went 1–3 with a 5.49

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) and 37

strikeouts In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It means the batter is out, unless the third strike is not caught by the catcher and the batter reaches first base safe ...

. As a sophomore, he made 14 starts, going 7–5 with a 5.00 ERA with 45 strikeouts. The following summer in 2017, he pitched for the

Orleans Firebirds The Orleans Firebirds, formerly the Orleans Cardinals, are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Orleans, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's East Division. The Firebirds play ...

of the

Cape Cod League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over 1,000 forme ...

, where he made six starts and posted a 4–0 record with a 2.04 ERA and 25 strikeouts and was named a league all-star. During his junior season, Lynch went 4–4 over the course of 13 starts with a 3.96 ERA and 105 strikeouts.

Professional career

Minor leagues

Lynch was selected by the

with the 34th overall pick in the

2018 Major League Baseball draft The 2018 Major League Baseball draft began on June 4, 2018. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was determined based on the reverse order of the 2017 MLB season final standings. In addition, compensation pi ...

. He signed with the Royals on June 10, 2018, for $1.7 million. He made his professional debut with the

Burlington Royals The Burlington Royals were a minor league baseball team in Burlington, North Carolina, United States. They were a Rookie-level team in the Appalachian League. The team was affiliated with the Cleveland Indians from 1986 to 2006 as the Burlington ...

of the

Rookie-level Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National L ...

Appalachian League The Appalachian League is a Collegiate summer baseball, collegiate summer baseball league that operates in the Appalachian regions of Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Designed for rising freshmen and sophomores using wooden ...

before being promoted to the

Lexington Legends The Lexington Legends are an American professional baseball team based in Lexington, Kentucky. They are a member of the South Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, a "partner league" of Major League Baseball. The Legends have ...

of the Single–A

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its h ...

. In 12 starts between the two clubs, he went 5–1 with a 1.58 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. Lynch spent 2019 with the

Wilmington Blue Rocks The Wilmington Blue Rocks are a Minor League Baseball team of the South Atlantic League and the High-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Wilmington, Delaware, and play their home games at Daniel S. Frawley Stadium. Fra ...

of the High–A

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...

and was named a Carolina League All-Star midway through the season. Over 15 starts, he went 5–2 with a 3.10 ERA. He was selected to play in the

Arizona Fall League The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an off-season baseball league owned and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB) which operates during autumn in Arizona, United States, at six different baseball complexes. Arizona Fall League rosters are filled ...

for the

Surprise Saguaros The Surprise Saguaros are a baseball team that plays in the West Division of the Arizona Fall League. They play their home games in Surprise, Arizona, at Surprise Stadium. The ballpark is also the spring training facility of the Kansas City Roya ...

following the season, earning All-Star honors. He did not play any minor league games in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Major leagues

On May 2, 2021, the Royals announced that Lynch would be promoted for the next day's game and be the starting pitcher against the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...

. Lynch was officially added to the

40-man roster A Major League Baseball roster is a list of players who are allowed, by league agreement, to play for a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Each MLB team maintains two rosters: an active roster of players eligible to participate in an MLB game, an ...

on May 3, and given the number 52. He finished his rookie campaign making 15 starts for the Royals, posting a 4–6 record and 5.19 ERA with 55 strikeouts across 68.0 innings of work. In 2022, Lynch made 27 starts for Kansas City, registering a 4–13 record and 5.13 ERA with 122 strikeouts in innings pitched. After missing the first two months of the 2023 season with a left shoulder strain, Lynch was placed back on the injured list with the same ailment on July 19, 2023. In his time on the active roster in between IL stint, he had recorded a 4.64 ERA with 34 strikeouts in innings across 9 starts. Lynch was transferred to the 60–day injured list on September 6. Lynch was optioned to the Triple–A

Omaha Storm Chasers The Omaha Storm Chasers are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. They are located in Papillion, Nebraska, a suburb southwest of Omaha, Nebraska, Omah ...

to begin the 2024 season.

Personal life

On July 18, 2023, Lynch added the

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

IV to his name, honoring his father and grandfather. In doing so, he became the first player in MLB history to play with the suffix IV on his jersey.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Daniel 1996 births Living people Arizona League Royals players Baseball players from Virginia Burlington Royals players Kansas City Royals players Lexington Legends players Major League Baseball pitchers Northwest Arkansas Naturals players Omaha Storm Chasers players Orleans Firebirds players People from Henrico County, Virginia Surprise Saguaros players Virginia Cavaliers baseball players Wilmington Blue Rocks players