KC Royals have the ultimate swiss army knife in their bullpen

The Kansas City Royals entered Wednesday's midweek series finale against the San Francisco Giants having to get creative in order to account for the losses of Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo to the IL.

They did so by deploying a team of relievers for a bullpen day, which was led by their breakout sensation in the bullpen, Daniel Lynch IV.

The 28-year-old southpaw has done everything and played every role that manager Matt Quatraro has asked of him. And not only has he done it, he's done it to a near-elite degree.

Daniel Lynch IV is the ultimate swiss army knife out of the KC Royals' bullpen

Lynch added opener to the list of roles he's capable of handling in the Royals bullpen. This shouldn't come as a complete surprise considering he was a a full-time starter just two seasons ago.

That being said, there was a reason he shifted to the bullpen, as a 4.64 ERA in 2023 was the best season ERA he posted in his three years as a starter.

Given his spotty track record as a starter, and the fact that it's no cake walk starting a game and setting the tone when you've become accustomed to appearing in relief, it would be fair to say that expectations may've been a little more tempered than normal for a 2025 Lynch outing.

But Lynch proved up to the task, as despite some minimal hiccups, Lynch managed to minimize the damage to just singles and walks, as he went 1 2/3 scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts.

Adding this to his repertoire has made him quite the jack of all trades in 2025. He's come in for clean middle-relief innings, gotten out of jams in the middle of an inning and also appeared in high leverage innings - even picking up a save in the process.

Through all of this, Lynch has thrown to a 1.19 ERA with a matching 1.19 WHIP in 22 2/3 innings. He's keeping the ball on the ground at an elite 52.3% rate (84th percentile), he's getting pitchers to chase at an equally strong 32.2% clip (82nd percentile) and he's avoiding quality contact to a respectable degree, with an 88.3 mph AVG exit velocity and a 6.2% barrel rate (both falling in the 71st percentile).

He may've been one of the last names to make this roster ahead of Opening Day, but Lynch has become so much more than that in just the span of a few months.