Hoos in the MLB: Two Former UVA Baseball Players Set for MLB Postseason

Matt Newton | Oct 1, 2024

Former Virginia baseball stars Chris Taylor and Daniel Lynch are set to play in the 2024 MLB Postseason. / IMAGN/USA TODAY

The calendar has flipped to October and the 2024 Major League Baseball Playoffs have arrived. Two former Virginia baseball players are set to participate in the MLB postseason, which begins with the Wild Card round starting on Tuesday.

Chris Taylor is set to play in the MLB Playoffs for the eighth-consecutive season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, while Daniel Lynch could make his MLB postseason debut pitching for the Kansas City Royals.

See the full bracket for the 2024 MLB Postseason below:

The stage is set 🤩

Which team do you have winning it all? #Postseason pic.twitter.com/ug0SkWgc4F

— MLB (@MLB) October 1, 2024

Daniel Lynch and the No. 5 seed Kansas City Royals are taking on the No. 4 seed Baltimore Orioles in a three-game wild card series starting Tuesday evening. See the full schedule for that series here:

Game 1, Tuesday: Kansas City Royals at Baltimore Orioles | 4:08pm ET | ESPN2
Game 2, Wednesday: Kansas City Royals at Baltimore Orioles | 4:38pm ET | ESPN
Game 3, Thursday: Kansas City Royals at Baltimore Orioles | 4:08pm ET | ESPN (if necessary)

This is Daniel Lynch's fourth season in the majors, but this will be his first taste of the postseason. He moved back into the bullpen after being a full-time starter the previous three years, but he has thrived in that relief role. In 16 appearances (3 starts) in 2024, Lynch is 2-0 with a career-best 3.32 ERA. In 43.1 total innings pitched, Lynch has given up 16 total earned runs and six home runs and has 39 strikeouts to 14 walks, a career-best 0.992 WHIP, and is averaging 8.1 strikeouts per nine innings.

Chris Taylor and the Los Angeles Dodgers have the No. 1 seed in the National League Playoffs and have earned homefield advantage for the entire postseason. The Dodgers have a first-round bye and will face the winner of the Wild Card series between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series, which begins Saturday, October 5th.

This is the 11th season in the majors for Taylor, who has spent the last eight years with the Dodgers, making the postseason every year. Taylor won a World Series title in 2020, was an All-Star in 2021, and was named the MVP of the 2017 National League Championship Series. Included among Taylor's postseason resume, which includes 67 career postseason games (and counting), is a three-home run performance in game 5 of the 2021 NLCS.

Taylor has once again filled a do-it-all utility role for the Dodgers. In 87 games, Taylor has made 56 starts and appeared 21 times at second base, 24 times at third, 48 times in left field, and eight times in center field.

Virginia would have had two more former Cavaliers in the MLB Postseason had the Arizona Diamondbacks not missed the playoffs in a brutal tiebreaker with the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets, who both made the playoffs with an identical overall record. Pavin Smith and Jake McCarthy both play for the Diamondbacks, who won the National League pennant and made the World Series last season.

Former UVA pitcher Josh Sborz and the defending World Series Champion Texas Rangers also missed the playoffs.

The following UVA baseball players in the MLB also missed out on the 2024 MLB Postseason:
- Matt Thaiss (Los Angeles Angels)
- Zack Gelof (Oakland Athletics)
- Ernie Clement (Toronto Blue Jays)
- Andrew Abbott (Cincinnati Reds)