For the second time in program history, Tennessee baseball lands three first-round draft selections after Andrew Fischer comes off the board.
The transfer first baseman was taken 20th overall by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2025 MLB Draft. He joins fellow transfer teammates Liam Doyle and Gavin Kilen as a trio of Vols to come off the board. It’s the first time under head coach Tony Vitello that the feat has been accomplished, and the first time since 2007 when J.P. Arencibia, Julio Borbon and James Adkins went in the opening round of their draft class.
Fischer heads to Milwaukee where he’ll join fellow Vol Blake Burke, who the Brewers took in the first round last season.
The 6-foot-1, 210-pound New Jersey native enjoyed a breakout campaign with Tennessee, where he led the SEC in home runs at 25. That mark ranks second in a season in Vols history, falling nine short of Christian Moore’s 34 set the season prior.
In addition to a power surge, Fischer fine-tuned other parts of his game at the plate — tying the Vols’ single-season walks record with 63. He worked his way from a 21% strikeout percentage his sophomore year at Ole Miss to a 14% rate his junior year at Tennessee, while completely turning around his strikeout-to-walk ratio from negative to positive. He walked just 35 times and struck out 53 in his lone season with the Rebels, but shifted to walking nearly double the amount of times at 63 while cutting down the strikeouts to 42, despite 40 more plate appearances.
Fischer arrived in Knoxville with additional concerns to his ability to play in the field. In some cases, he was considered a liability at third base with the Rebels. When he got to Tennessee, he remained at third base to begin — but with Alex Perry stepping away from the program and Alberto Osuna in a fight for eligibility, Fischer assumed a new position at first base. And from there, he thrived. The position did wonders for him, finishing the year with a .988 fielding percentage while committing a measly five errors.
His play rewarded him with unanimous first-team All-American honors, to pair with a first-team All-SEC selection. Fischer finished the year with a team-high .760 slugging percentage, while earning the team’s highest qualified on-base percentage at .497. Fischer safely reached base in all 65 games the Vols played this season. He hit .341 on the year with 25 homers and 65 RBIs.
In 30 SEC regular-season games, Fischer totaled a .340 batting average to go with 11 homers and 23 RBIs, slugging .736 with a .478 on base percentage.
The former Ole Miss import by way of Duke tallied a career .307 batting average with 56 home runs and 155 RBIs.
Fischer’s best stretch of the year came to conclude the regular season. Spanning from the series finale against Vanderbilt on May 11 to the SEC Tournament Quarterfinal against Texas, Fischer recorded seven consecutive multi-hit performances. During that stretch, he hit 17-for-34 (.500) with four homers and nine RBIs. That included a three-game streak of three-hit performances.