Abbott had a rough 2026 season<\/a>, finishing with a 4.61 ERA and a 1.452 WHIP over 32 starts. Those aren\u2019t the numbers you\u2019d put on a recruiting poster. But he also threw 166 innings, and the year before, he posted a 2.87 ERA and earned his first All-Star selection. That\u2019s quite a swing in performance.<\/p>\nSo, should Toronto at least pick up the phone?<\/p>\n
Why the Blue Jays Might Be Interested<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays have good reason to look for another starting pitcher. Their 2026 season exposed just how quickly a rotation can become a problem when injuries and departures pile up. Heading into 2027, Toronto needs dependable innings and enough depth to avoid putting too much pressure on its younger arms.<\/p>\n
Abbott offers a few things worth considering. He\u2019s a left-hander, he\u2019s made at least 25 starts in each of the past three seasons, and he\u2019s still under team control for several years. Toronto wouldn\u2019t be renting a pitcher for a few months and then watching him walk away.<\/p>\n
And let\u2019s not forget 2025. A 2.87 ERA doesn\u2019t guarantee he\u2019ll return to that level, but it does suggest the 2026 season isn\u2019t the only evidence Toronto should consider.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Reds Might Not Be Ready to Deal<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the catch: Cincinnati has reasons to hold on to him, too. Abbott is only 27, has already shown he can handle a full starter\u2019s workload, and has several years of control remaining. The Reds don\u2019t have to sell simply because one season went badly.<\/p>\n
Cincinnati may be willing to discuss its starting pitchers, but the club would likely want a return that helps its present and future. That means Toronto probably wouldn\u2019t get Abbott just by offering a couple of interesting prospects.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s another question. Was Abbott\u2019s disappointing season mostly bad luck and an unfriendly home ballpark for a fly-ball pitcher, or did something in his pitching actually change? Before making a serious offer, the Blue Jays would need to be comfortable with that answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a certain appeal to buying low on a baseball player. A pitcher has a disappointing season, his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,535,50,4259,4,536],"class_list":["post-838608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-reds","tag-baseball","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cincinnatireds","tag-mlb","tag-reds"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117510348663195901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}