Matt Strahm's injury gives thriving Royals southpaw chance to step up amid breakout season

After minimal injuries at the very beginning of the season, the injury bug has caught up to the Royals. While Cole Ragans and their most recent injured list addition in Kris Bubic represent arguably their two biggest names on the shelf, sandwiched in between them was set-up man Matt Strahm. The lefty was placed on the 15-day IL this past Saturday with knee inflammation, leaving the Royals with yet another hole to fill in the back-end of their bullpen.

However, as hard it might be seeing a top-notch southpaw land on the IL, the Royals are in a unique spot right now. While it may not be the way anyone would've hoped his elevated reponsibilites would come, there's no denying that the door is open for fellow left-hander Daniel Lynch IV to take his breakout season to a whole other level.

After a pretty impressive season in 2025, Lynch has absolutely shone with Kansas City to start the new campaign as undoubtedly their most reliable reliever. Through 20 innings across 19 outings, Lynch is sporting an excellent 1.80 ERA, 2.36 FIP, 0.80 WHIP and .141 BAA.

Strahm's injury leaves the Royals without a left-handed option in the later innings to come alongside the pair of righties in closer Lucas Erceg and fellow 2026 standout Nick Mears. Lynch seems like the only logical answer to fill that void.

This is because the Royals are rather devoid of southpaws in the bullpen in general, as Bailey Falter - who could find himself starting more in Bubic's absence - is the only other left-handed reliever available to Matt Quatraro and Co. at the moment. This opens the door to even more opportunities in general for Lynch, as the breakout star could find himself very busy with Strahm out.

Royals' Daniel Lynch IV has completely transformed his game in 2026

While there's no denying Lynch took the ball and ran with it last season as one of the last names to break camp out of spring training, he's noticeably taken another massive step forward in 2026.

The 29-year-old former compensatory pick is at long last showing why he was once considered one of the better prospects in the Royals' system. He's dominating hitters with unreal looking strikeout metrics that make his 2025 outputs look like nothing. And his quality of contact metrics have extremely improved, as he's no longer simply a groundball merchant.

Not only is Lynch thriving for the Royals, he's simply been one of the league's highest performing relievers in 2026 overall. He ranks among the Top 15 qualified relievers in MLB in WHIP (13th) and BAA (14th) and his 32.9% K-rate and 11.70 K/9 places him 14th and 18th respectively.

And there's reason to believe that if he remains the dominant force he's been all season when occupying Strahm's role in the 'pen, than perhaps it could result in more high leverage outings even when Strahm returns. While he's improved after a slow start, Strahm hasn't been the sub-3.00 ERA force he was with the Phillies in both '24 and '25. Through 16.1 innings across 17 appearances, Strahm only sports a 3.86 ERA, 4.88 FIP and 1.29 WHIP.

But that's a story for a different day though. For now, Lynch will have his hands full as the go-to lefty in this Royals 'pen for the time being.

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