Daniel Lynch sent back to minors by Kansas City Royals. Here’s what he’ll work on

Daniel Lynch’s initial introduction to the big leagues wasn’t very forgiving, and it wasn’t very long.

The Kansas City Royals demoted Lynch, the highly touted left-hander who ranks among the top pitching prospects in professional baseball, to Triple-A prior to Friday’s doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The club announced catcher Sebastian Rivero and Lynch had been optioned to Omaha. The Royals reinstated catcher Cam Gallagher from the 7-day concussion list and recalled right-hander Jake Newberry. Right-hander Ronald Bolaños also joined the club as the 27th man on the roster for the doubleheader.

“This is a special pitcher,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of Lynch. “Everything he does, to me, how he prepares, how he thinks, how he competes, the improvements we watched with him over the last year (have been impressive). He takes challenges and is ever intentional and very efficient in figuring out how to get done what he needs to get done.”

Lynch made three starts in his first stint in the majors. He debuted against the Cleveland Indians at Kauffman Stadium in the first game of the most recent home stand on May 3. He also pitched against the Chicago White Sox on May 8 in Kansas City as well as on the road against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.

In three starts, Lynch pitched eight innings and allowed 15 runs (14 earned) on 18 hits (one home run) and five walks. He struck out seven. Opponents batted .474 against the left-hander with a fastball in the upper 90s.

Matheny seemingly alluded to Lynch having unwittingly tipping pitches after he did not get through the first inning against the White Sox, giving up eight runs and only recording two outs.

On Friday, Matheny said of Lynch’s inability to finish off batters with two strikes in his latest outing, “We saw some pitches that you typically see some reactions to.”

When asked directly about Lynch tipping pitches, Matheny said it’s an issue that the Royals are “always watching” for with their pitchers. He also said tipping is something that becomes more of an issue at the major-league level because of the increased amount of technology available.

Lynch allowed four runs on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings on Thursday. After his outing, Lynch said a big part of his focus between his second and third starts had been on his pitching mechanics.

“Mainly (we worked on) just repeating my delivery the best I can on all my pitches,” Lynch said. “That was kind of what we focused on the most. There were other few small things, but the main thing was just repeating my delivery on all my pitches.”

Baseball America ranked Lynch the seventh-best pitching prospect in the minors and 21st-best prospect regardless of position. MLBPipeline.com ranked him No. 24 overall and second-best left-handed pitching prospect.

Lynch had taken Jakob Junis’ spot in the starting rotation as Junis moved to the bullpen in the wake of Jesse Hahn and Kyle Zimmer going on the injured list.