Comeback greater than setback for Hawkins

Biggar product heads to spring training with MLB Padres

By Darren Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex

Garrett Hawkins gets some throws in at the Indoor Training Centre.

Sitting on the cusp of a “big league” dream, Garrett Hawkins was just trying to revive his baseball career a year ago at this time.

In February of 2025, Hawkins was going into training camp activities with the San Diego Padres organization after having last pitched early in the 2023 campaign. He was well along the comeback trail after having Tommy John surgery in the elbow on his right throwing arm.

On April 5, 2025, Hawkins took the mound in his new role as a reliever for the Fort Wayne TinCaps, who are the Padres high-A affiliate in Indiana. From that beginning he would be promoted to the San Antonio Missions AA team on August 1, 2025. 

Hawkins performed so well that he was named the Padres’ organizational Minor League Pitcher of the Year on September 28, 2025.

The best news following the end of the campaign came to Hawkins on November 18, 2025 when he was added to the Padres 40-man MLB roster. He is set to report along with the rest of the Padres pitchers and catchers for Spring Training on February 11 in Peoria, Arizona, which is a day after his 26^th birthday.

“I don’t think it has fully settled in kind of what it means,” said Hawkins, who stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 230 pounds. “I think once I get down to spring training it will kind of settle in.”

As he has for every off-season of his professional career, Hawkins has been training at the Indoor Training Centre with the Going Yard Baseball Academy. He has also helped out with coaching young pitchers too.

Garrett Hawkins returned to action after Tommy John surgery.

While Hawkins had been with the Padres since being selected by them in the ninth round of the 2021 MLB Draft in July of that year, he felt like he was going into the unknown going into spring training in 2025. One of the first changes he dealt with was being moved from being a starter to being a reliever.

“At the start of the year, I didn’t know what kind of role I’d have and kind of how the year would go,” said Hawkins. “I got settled in with a good group in Fort Wayne and kind of took it slow.

“I kind of learned along with some of the new guys that I didn’t know before. The year turned out all right.”

From April 27, 2025 until his promotion to San Antonio on Aug. 1, 2025, Hawkins did not allow a run for 34 consecutive innings over 26 appearances. It was the longest scoreless inning and appearances streak in Fort Wayne franchise history. 

Hawkins’ streak finished at 38 consecutive innings, which was the longest scoreless innings streak in Minor League Baseball since 2015.

“It definitely was a fun ride,” said Hawkins about the scoreless innings streak. “I didn’t really know where I was at as kind of the year went.

“I wasn’t thinking about it a whole lot. It definitely was nice to kind of be in that groove for a while and definitely there was some luck involved. It was a good run.”

With the TinCaps, Hawkins appeared in 32 games pitching in 44 innings posting an 8-1 record, a 1.43 earned run average, 60 strike outs and eight saves, while giving up 17 hits. With the Missions, Hawkins appeared in 13 games pitching in 16 innings posting a 1-0 record, a 1.69 earned run average, 20 strikeouts and two saves while giving up 11 hits.

Garrett Hawkins threw 38 consecutive scoreless innings in 2025.

Jordan Draeger, who is an owner operator and instructor at Going Yard, first got an opportunity to coach Hawkins in 2015, when the hurler was 15-years-old. Draeger has gotten to work with Hawkins on a fairly regular basis since that time including working with him to get him ready for the 2025 campaign and for the upcoming 2026 season. The longtime coach was impressed with how Hawkins performed last season coming back from injury.

“It was actually pretty remarkable like how he bounced back from the Tommy John surgery,” said Draeger. “I’ve seen athletes mentally get rocked by that a little bit, and it takes them a little bit while to trust their body and bring the violence back into their throwing progression.

“He really didn’t skip a beat honestly. He just kind of realized that it is a part of things that if you’re going to throw with that much intent all the time that it is just kind of part of it. Mentally, it didn’t set him back at all, so physically it didn’t set him back at all.

“He did a great job of recovering, putting in the hard work obviously in the gym working on his body to make sure that he was in a good position to bounce back. It honestly didn’t play too much into what we did out here from a training progression.”

Draeger added that everyone with Going Yard were keeping tabs on Hawkins’ scoreless inning streak when it was in progress.

“It was super cool to track his progression of the scoreless inning streak,” said Draeger. “That was a lot of fun for everyone to watch, (and) watching his numbers and the strikeout percentages go up.

Garrett Hawkins, right, gives pointers to a young pitcher.

“I think him moving into a closer role was something that was really healthy for him. There is a limited amount of pitches, and he could just go out there and throw with high intent and do his thing. I think the Padres have found a bit of a gold mine, and I think they’re just starting to realize that.

“With that, they put him in the right role. It fits him really well. It was super cool for us to watch as an organization and be able to like cheer him on at a distance.”

Hawkins has enjoyed being able to come back to work with Draeger and the rest of the Going Yard staff over the years.

“These guys have helped me a bunch throughout kind of the development of me all the way back to high school,” said Hawkins, who is a graduate of the Saskatoon Giants under18-AAA program. “It definitely means a lot to have them around.”

Draeger said it has been special to work with Hawkins over the long term and see how the relationship evolved with the experience the hurler has gained since becoming a professional in 2021.

“I think it is a really respectful relationship that we have in the sense that we can still offer him help and offer guidance here,” said Draeger. “It is more of a conversation now than it is about like firm coaching.

“We have really productive conversations on what he needs to do and what he needs to execute in order to get better. It has been awesome to just like have that insight as to where he came from and where he is going.”

Hawkins was grateful to be named the Padres’ organizational Minor League Pitcher of the Year. He is also thankful the Padres stuck with him during the recovery process and didn’t elect to release him.

Garrett Hawkins aims to take advantage of his MLB roster spot.

“It definitely means a lot,” said Hawkins. “They’ve invested a lot of time and energy into developing me into who I am.

“I am definitely grateful for that.”

Now going into the 2026 campaign, Hawkins focus is on taking advantage of the fact he is on the Padres 40-man MLB roster.

“I kind of just take it one day at a time and not make it as big of a deal as it maybe is,” said Hawkins. “I am just trying to do my thing and not worry about too much else.”

Hawkins takes big first step in chasing big league dreams

By Darren Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex

Garrett Hawkins throws a pitch at the Indoor Training Centre.

Garrett Hawkins was ready to jump into the next level of work when he was drafted into the MLB.

On the second day the 2021 MLB Draft this past July 12, the hard-throwing right-handed pitcher from Biggar, Sask., was selected in the ninth round and 280^th overall by the San Diego Padres. The draft selection was a huge highlight for the 21-year-old, but he knew the long journey to try and become an everyday MLB player continued.

“It was pretty exciting just knowing that all the hard work had paid off,” said Hawkins, who towers on the mound at 6-foot-5 and weighs 230 pounds. “You kind of got to a point that you’re just proud of yourself and proud of everyone that kind of contributed to it.

“Not to say that the work isn’t done. There is still a lot more to do, but it is a good first step for sure.”

Hawkins, who trains in the off-season at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex, had been playing for the New Jersey state capital-based Trenton Thunder of the MLB Draft league at the time he was selected by the Padres. 

With the Thunder, Hawkins started six games posting a 1-0 record, a 2.63 ERA, 32 strikeouts while giving up two walks in 24 innings of work.

Shortly after being drafted, Hawkins traveled to Peoria, Arizona, to join the Padres rookie team that plays in the 18-club Arizona Complex League.

With the ACL Padres, Hawkins put up solid numbers. The graduate of the Saskatoon Giants under-18 AAA program appeared in seven games with the ACL Padres posting a 3-1 record, a 2.35 ERA, 27 strikeouts while giving up two walks in 15.1 innings.

“I enjoyed it,” said Hawkins, whose main pitches are the fastball, slider and change up. “I just kind of got my toes wet in how it all works going forward.

Garrett Hawkins was picked in the MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres.

“I got to meet a lot of people, see lots of like different cultures like lots of Latin players that I haven’t had a chance to be around a tonne and kind of just meeting all the new draftees that got picked in my year also. It was pretty good, and I am excited to kind of get going again and move my way up.”

Hawkins said he benefitted from the fact he got some real good coaching with the ACL Padres, which he thought helped his performance on the field.

“I think I just kind of maybe took another step once I got there,” said Hawkins, who can throw his fastball at 93 to 95 miles per hour. “Eventually, something stuck, and I kind of just used it to my advantage.

“I think just the increased input from the coaching staff and all that helped a lot.”

Throughout his life, Hawkins said baseball was the sport he was always the most passionate about. That passion took root from simple beginnings.

“I kind of just started playing baseball at a young age playing catch with my dad (Ian Hawkins) at home,” said Hawkins. “Eventually, I was just playing minor baseball.

“All my friends were kind of doing it at the time.”

When he started playing minor baseball, Hawkins said he started to experience success on the mound early on.

“I’d say it happened right away,” said Hawkins. “Obviously, I hit and pitched at a younger age, but I kind of had a knack for pitching when I was younger.”

Hawkins ultimately caught the eyes of the high-performance coaches with Baseball Sask. He helped Saskatchewan win gold at the 2016 Baseball Canada Cup in Fort McMurray, Alta., and at the 2017 Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg.

Garrett Hawkins had a good season with the Padres rookie team.

The standout hurler credited Greg Brons, who is the High Performance Director for Baseball Sask, with getting a core group of players playing together or against each other on younger teams and training together in the years heading into those gold medal wins.

Hawkins said the players became good friends and a realization grew that they might be able to accomplish big goals together.

“We had a core group of guys that (Greg) Brons kind of brought up together and kind of knew we had the potential to do something like that,” said Hawkins. “That group had been together for maybe three years before that, so when it came time to put it all together, I just kind of remember all the guys that we had and just how good we were and how ready we were to kind of be on that stage.

“It was exciting.”

Besides those gold medal wins on a national stage, Hawkins enjoyed playing against and with a number of his provincial team teammates in the provincial under-18 AAA league. He has lots of good memories throwing for the Saskatoon Giants at Cairns Field and Leakos Field.

“I enjoyed it just because most of the time it is like Saskatoon team versus a Saskatoon team, so you kind of want to beat the other one,” said Hawkins. “I enjoyed my time playing here for sure.”

After his season wrapped up with the ACL Padres, Hawkins elected to live in Saskatoon during the off-season in order to train at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. On top of doing his own training, Hawkins will help out the crew at the Going Yard Training Centre coach young pitchers.

Jordan Draeger, who is one of Going Yard’s top instructors, was one of Hawkins past coaches.

“It is pretty cool just seeing (the young pitchers), because I was in those guys shoes kind of when I was in high school,” said Hawkins. “It is kind of cool seeing those guys build up and be around them as much as I can trying to help out, if they need it.

Garrett Hawkins aims to keep moving up the professional ranks.

“I like going in there and doing my work and getting to watch some other guys do theirs, so it is pretty cool.”

Hawkins, who will turn 22-years-old in February, said all the coaches he had through the years have had a big impact in allowing him to have the success he has had.

Going into his second season as a professional, Hawkins said his main focus is improving his consistency.

“I kind of like where my pitches are at now,” said Hawkins. “I think just continuing to learn about hitters and stuff like that and just trust myself.

“I just have to continue to get better each day and try and move up.”