Reds pitcher Andrew Abbott is having a difficult start to the new season.
The Cincinnati Reds are playing the Detroit Tigers on Friday night. Andrew Abbott has been one of the most overlooked starting pitchers in recent seasons. He's been quite good, yet he has not received much attention at all. So far in 2026, however, Abbott has struggled at an alarming rate. The trend did not change on Friday against the Tigers.
Abbott ended up pitching four innings, allowing five earned runs along the way. He surrendered two home runs, struck out four hitters, walked two batters and gave up six total hits.
The Reds trail the Tigers as of this story's publication. So, what is going wrong for Abbott this year?
Andrew Abbott's Alarming 2026 Struggles With Reds
Abbott's ERA is now 6.59 following Friday's start. In 2025, he turned in a 2.87 ERA across 29 outings.
The southpaw ranks in the 18th percentile in chase percentage, 20th percentile in whiff percentage and eighth percentile in strikeout percentage. In other words, he is not getting many swings and misses, hitters are not consistently chasing out of the zone against him and Abbott is rarely striking hitters out.
He has been able to limit hard hits at a fairly respectable rate, as he is in the 67th percentile for hard-hit percentage. Runners are still getting on base, though. Not only are a lot of balls being put in play against Abbott, but he is walking more hitters than last year.
Abbott turned in a 6.3 percent walk rate in 2025. His walk rate sat at 9.6 percent heading into Friday night's game. As mentioned, he walked two more hitters against the Tigers.
Abbott's strikeout rate is especially concerning, though. Last season, he struck out 21.8 percent of the hitters he faced. In 2026, Abbott's strikeout rate is 13.2 percent, which is in the eighth percentile as mentioned.
Will Andrew Abbott be able to turn things around?
Well, he has a proven track record in MLB. Abbott has found success over the past few years. He was especially impressive in 2026. There is reason to believe that he can still be a good pitcher at the MLB level.
With that being said, Abbott may need to skip a start or two. He needs to put in extra work in order to figure out why he is striking out less hitters and walking more batters this season. That obviously is not a recipe for success.