Courtney Hawkins

Position: OF
Born: 11/12/1993
Ht: 6’3″ Wt: 220 lb B-T: R-R
Acquired: Drafted 1st round (13th overall) in the 2012 draft out of Mary Carroll HS (Tex.)
Career Stats

FutureSox Prospect Rankings

  • #1 – 2012 Midseason
  • #1 – 2013 Preseason
  • #4 – 2013 Midseason
  • #6 – 2014 Preseason
  • #3 – 2014 Midseason
  • #7 – 2015 Preseason
  • #9 – 2015 Midseason
  • #9 – 2016 Preseason
  • #23 – 2016 Midseason

FutureSox Media

Accolades

  • Carolina League All-Star, 2014 Midseason
  • Carolina League All-Star, 2014 Postseason
  • Arizona Fall League Rising Stars Game, 2016
  • Atlantic League (indy ball) All-Star, 2018 Midseason

Scouting Report

The White Sox made Hawkins their first high school first round pick since Kris Honel in 2001 and first high school position player since Jeff Liefer in 1995. Scouts loved him because he showed big power potential and the size, speed and arm strength to become a prototypical starting right fielder in the majors. He pitched in high school and reportedly had a low 90s fastball and that arm strength comes in handy in the outfield.

The excitement he created by moving all the way from rookie level Bristol to High-A Winston-Salem in 2012 was mitigated by his disastrous 2013 as the youngest player to open the Carolina League that season. He struck out in 37.6% of his plate appearances with the Dash in 2013, a sharp rise from the 22.4% over three levels in 2012. Hawkins did hit 19 HR, to go with a .178 average. He repeated Winston-Salem in 2014 with better numbers across the board (.249/.331/.450, 19 HR, 27.8% K/PA), but still struck out in more than a quarter of his plate appearances.

This earned him a promotion to Double-A for 2015, a tough assignment for a 21-year old with a raw hit tool. He performed better than some anticipated thanks to continued work on improving his plate approach, but a .710 OPS isn’t much to get excited about and his whiff rate crept back up to an alarming 30.3%. Repeating the level in 2016, the numbers actually got worse. Substantially lower core numbers and striking out at an almost identical rate. In 2017 there was more of the same statistically and he missed time to a few nagging injuries as well as a reported thyroid condition.

Hawkins made wholesale mechanical changes at the plate, but was still out of the organization in 2018. His power is such that when he guesses right he can hit it a ton, but he needs to improve pitch recognition and pitch-to-pitch adjustment pretty dramatically to be more than a mistake-hitter. Defensively, there were reports of improvement, but he also appeared to lose a step in 2016 and he’s at best mediocre on the corners.