After only getting an occasional start in his first three seasons at Virginia, Andrew Abbott got the opportunity to join the rotation in 2021 and he dominated, posting a 2.87 ERA with 162 strikeouts in 106.2 innings. That led to the Cincinnati Reds selecting him in the 2nd round and then he would thrown 13.0 innings before the season came to an end.
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When 2022 began the Reds sent the left-handed starter to High-A Dayton. Andrew Abbott’s first start was solid as he allowed a run in 4.0 innings with two walks and four strikeouts. He followed that up with absolute dominance over the next month as he allowed one run in 23.0 innings with five walks and 36 strikeouts. That was all that Cincinnati needed to see and Abbott was promoted to Double-A Chattanooga in early May.
The first start with the Lookouts continued the dominance as the lefty struck out 12 batters without a walk in 5.2 shutout innings. Things were solid after that for the next five starts as Abbott posted a 3.91 ERA in 25.1 innings that spanned that stretch. But on June 18th he had what would be the worst start of the season as he allowed eight runs and only recorded two outs before exiting the game.
After that things didn’t get too much better. For the next 10 weeks he would struggle to find consistency as he posted a 6.02 ERA in 10 starts and walked 28 batters to go along with 57 strikeouts in 43.1 innings for the Lookouts. That span ran through the end of August. With the season coming to an end, the lefty turned things around in his final three games as he didn’t allow a single run in 16.0 innings during September, walked just three batters, and picked up 21 strikeouts to close the year out.
For all 2022 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).
Andrew Abbott Scouting Report
Position: Left-handed pitcher | B/T: L/L
Height: 6′ 0″ | Weight: 180 lbs | Acquired: 2nd Round, 2021 Draft
Born: June 1, 1999
Fastball | A pitch that works in the 92-94 MPH range that will touch higher on occasion.
Curveball | An above-average breaking ball that he throws in the 78-80 MPH range.
Change Up | An average to slightly above-average pitch.
When Andrew Abbott throws strikes he’s been very, very good. You could see that in the stats he put up at both the beginning and the end of the season. But when he battled consistency with finding the strikezone, like he did in the middle of the year, he struggled to keep runs off of the board.
While he had plenty of success against lefties on the year (.556 OPS), he was solid against righties (.798 OPS against him in Double-A). His BABIP was high on the year at .343. That’s not always a sign of a guy being unlucky, but when a guy also racks up a lot of strikeouts along the way, it’s probably a sign that he was a bit unlucky. Perhaps some of that can be related to his inconsistency with location that also showed up in the walk totals.
Abbott has moved quickly, spending much of his time in his first full season at the Double-A level. It was an aggressive promotion, though one that wasn’t entirely unearned as he simply wasn’t being challenged in Dayton. Hitters at the next level did challenge him, though, and towards the end of the season he found some success. If he can build on that and find some more consistency in 2023 he could move up quickly.
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Interesting Stat on Andrew Abbott
He was dominant against left-handed hitters, holding them to a .219/.278/.277 line without allowing a home run in 169 plate appearances.