Almost halfway through the 2025 season and nearing the All-Star break, enough ball has been played to judge players’ performances this year. Pitching talent has come in no shortage, as many young stars, such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Hunter Brown, have taken the league by storm. Yet, one young pitcher has been elite this year, but received nowhere near the same attention from the national media: Cincinnati’s Andrew Abbott.
In his first two years, Abbott was a more than serviceable starter, posting ERAs just below 4.00 and accumulating over 20 starts each season. These numbers are enough to establish Abbott as a quality starter in any club’s rotation, but this was just the beginning of his career.
Coming into year three, the lefty pitcher started on the Injured List with a shoulder strain in his throwing arm, which he suffered from the prior season. Thankfully, this wouldn’t keep him out long, as Abbott made his debut 2 weeks after the season started against Pittsburgh. Abbott would come out of the gates hot to start the year, and hasn’t looked back since.
Most pitchers will struggle when coming back from injury, or at least take a few games to reacclimate to the Majors. Abbott isn’t most pitchers. After a great few starts, Abbott found a whole new gear in the month of May. Starting six games in May, he allowed just two(!) earned runs across the entire month, making it one of the most dominant stretches a pitcher has put together in recent memory.
The starting pitcher finally began garnering the attention he deserved on June 10, when he posted his first career complete game shutout. In a cross-state showdown between the Reds and Guardians, runs were coming at a premium. A 5th inning RBI single put the Reds up 1-0, but the offense couldn’t get anything else going. Luckily for Cincinnati, they didn’t need to. Abbott held the reigning AL Central champs to just 3 hits on a night he needed to be near perfect, capping off the best performance of his young career.
So far this season, the University of Virginia product has posted a 1.79 ERA, a 7-1 W/L record, and a WHIP of just 0.96. If this wasn’t impressive enough, the consistency is what’s most insane about his play this season. Across his 13 starts this year, Abbott has given up multiple earned runs in a game only twice. Regardless of how the offense is playing in Cincinnati any given day, Abbott gives the team a chance to win anytime he takes the mound.
With roughly two weeks until the All-Star pitchers are announced, there isn’t much time left for Abbott to continue pleading his case. The good news is, there’s no need for him to. The southpaw may not be getting the national attention others receive, but his play has done enough to put the league on notice. As one of baseball’s best pitchers week in and week out, Abbott will be pitching in Atlanta come July 15.
It can be irritating to see great players not receive the attention they deserve, but Abbott is forcing the league to acknowledge him and his dominance. Cincinnati was left without an ace when Hunter Greene suffered an injury in May, but Abbott has stepped up more than anyone could’ve asked for.
The Cincinnati Reds currently sit at 40-38, and will look to be potential buyers at the trade deadline if they can stay above .500. The NL Central has been a bloodbath with 4 teams in the playoff mix, but there’s plenty of life with Abbott leading this pitching staff.
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