Abbott attended Halifax County High School in South Boston, Virginia.

[5][6][7] Abbott spent his first professional season with the Arizona Complex League Reds and Daytona Tortugas.

[10] Abbott began the year with Double-A Chattanooga, posting a 1.15 ERA across 3 starts before he promoted to the Triple-A Louisville Bats.

[11] In 7 starts for Louisville, Abbott logged a 3–0 record and 3.05 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 38+1⁄3 innings of work.

[13] Abbott made his major league debut on June 5 and threw 6 shutout innings versus the Brewers, striking out 6 batters and allowing only 1 hit, making him the only left-hander in the Modern Era to pitch at least 6 scoreless innings with at least 6 strikeouts and no more than one hit allowed in an MLB debut, and the first Reds pitcher to do so since 1893.