Kevin Abel named Southern League Pitcher of the Week

Minor League Baseball and the Southern League have named right-handed pitcher Kevin Abel as the league’s Pitcher of the Week. It’s the fourth time this season that a Chattanooga Lookout has won the player of the week honors.

Kevin Abel made just one start this past week, but it was a heck of a start. Facing the Mississippi Braves he fired off eight shutout innings. Over the course of his start he allowed just one hit – a single into center field in the third inning. Abel would walk one batter and pick up eight strikeouts in the game.

That’s the kind of performance that’ll get you some recognition and it did just that. It’s the second strong outing in a row for Kevin Abel. The week before he struck out nine batters while facing the Rocket City Trash Pandas and had just one walk while giving up three runs on three hits.

The season has been a bit up-and-down for Abel this year. He began the season in Dayton and pitched well, posting a 2.79 ERA in six starts before being promoted to Chattanooga. He carried that performance forward for the next month with the Lookouts, posting a 1.71 ERA in his first five starts in the Southern League, but then he really hit a speed bump in his next seven outings as he posted an ERA of 11.10 with as many walks as strikeouts, both of which were more than he had innings pitched.  But things have gone much better over his last three outings where he’s given up just four runs in 20.0 innings.

Here are the other Cincinnati Reds players to win a Player of the Week Award in 2024: