Unable to break into the A’s big-league roster during Oakland’s glory years of the early 1990s, Abbott was dealt to Florida after the 1993 season and became the Marlins’ starting shortstop in 1994. Even though he socked a career-high 17 homers the following year, Abbott yielded his job to promising rookie Edgar Renteria in 1996 and served mainly as a utilityman when his team took the World Series championship in 1997. Hindered by horrendous strikeout-to-walk ratios and vision problems that eventually required contact lenses, Abbott spent the next three seasons with three different teams but couldn’t recapture a starting job.
