Cubs- Down On The Farm: Cory Abbott

Player: Cory Abbott

Position: Right-Handed Pitcher

Height: 6’2 Weight: 220 Age: 24 Bats/Throws: R/R Current Level: AA Tennessee

MLB.com Rank: 11th in Cubs System

Drafted: 2017 (2nd Round, 67th Overall by Cubs)

Hometown: San Diego, CA

College: Loyola Marymount

The Cubs selected Abbott second round of the 2017 draft after an impressive junior year at Loyola Marymount. Not only did he set a school record for strikeouts per nine innings at 11.9, but on March 25th, 2017 against BYU, he pitched the school’s first ever perfect game.

He’s steadily progressed his way through through the Cubs’ minor league system with good numbers at each stop so far. In 2019, he made 26 starts at Double-A Tennessee, had a 3.01 ERA and struck out 10.19 batters per nine innings.

Scouting Grades

Scouting grades are based on a 20-80 scale where 50 is league average. Every 10 points away from there represents 1 standard deviation away. First number is current grade, second number after the slash is a potential future grade. FV means Future Value overall

Abbott’s success thus far has come from his above-average command and using his breaking stuff as strikeout pitches. Abbott’s fastballs (Four and two-seamer) range from 90-93 mph and top out at 95. He has a slider (82-84 mph) which is sometimes more like a cutter when he throws it a bit harder. The curveball (78-81 mph) has more break to it and the changeup is another option that looks like it can become another major league average option.

Abbott is not going to blow batters away, but he keeps batters off balance using his wide variety of secondary pitches. He’s also shown to be durable; starting 22 games in 2018 and 26 games in 2019. He looks like he could provide starting rotation depth and become a future 5-starter in the MLB.

Cory Abbott Stats

Published by Will McClaughry

Sports fan, data enthusiast and former division 3 college basketball player

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: