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Prepared to Launch: Wall Alum Andrew Fischer Ready for MLB Draft Moment

Matt Manley|July 10, 2025|Last Updated July 10, 2025

Andrew Fischer has proven to be many things since graduating from Wall High School in 2022, not the least of which is adaptable.

In a modern college baseball landscape that includes the transfer portal, Name Image and Likeness (NIL) money and consolidation of power teams into a small number of conferences, Fischer is the quintessential post-COVID college baseball superstar.

When Fischer began his freshman baseball season at Wall in 2019, neither the portal nor NIL existed. The 2019 Wall team could go down as one of the best teams in the recent history of the Shore Conference and heavy on seniors and juniors who had played together at every stage of their development.

In most programs, Fischer was varsity-ready as a freshman, but not on that team in that season. His turn would come next year as a sophomore, or so he thought.

One year later, the world changed, and with it, so did baseball at every level. There was no high school baseball season for Fischer or for anyone else in the United States due to the COVID pandemic. When baseball did return in the spring of 2021, the landscape was almost unrecognizable.

The 14-year-old who accepted his sub-varsity role even as he was just months away from verbally committing to play at Duke University was playing by different rules than the young man who immediately took control of his career from the moment he set foot on the Duke campus in the fall of 2023. Fischer did not take long to figure that out.

“Whatever kind of player I was at Wall, I was a boy back then,” Fischer said. “College is about a boy becoming a man and that’s pretty much been my experience. When you’re in high school, it’s about going out and having fun, trying to win with your friends. With travel ball and then in college, I always treated baseball like it was my job. I want it to be my job in the future, so I need to treat it like a job right now. This is what is going to put a roof over my head, so there is no time for me to take days off.”

Nearly three full years after arriving in Durham, N.C., Fischer has played for three different powerhouse Division I baseball programs in three seasons, the last two of which are part of the hyper-competitive Southeastern Conference (SEC). He embraced the intensity of SEC baseball and adopted the brash, in-your-face personality of the teams he played on – all in the name of camaraderie, self-confidence, and competition.

“It’s hard not to get excited for SEC games,” Fischer said. “Every player in the conference is high level and has worked really hard to get there and when you do something to help your team, those emotions just start flying. You just have to do your best to channel them as best you can.”

And yes, he got paid. Fischer’s stops at Ole Miss and Tennessee netted him lucrative NIL deals, including a reported seven-figure deal this past spring while playing for the defending NCAA Champions at Tennessee.

Now, Fischer is just days away from the next stage of his career and his ability to adapt – both on the field and off – is among the many attributes that will make him a surefire day-one selection in the Major League baseball First-Year Player Draft, with a legitimate chance to be selected in the first round this Sunday.

No player from the Shore Conference has been selected in the first round since 2016, when the Boston Red Sox selected Jay Groome right out of Barnegat High School 12th overall and the Los Angeles Angels selected Jackson Memorial alum Matt Thaiss out of the University of Virginia four picks later. Thaiss is now a catcher in the Majors with the Tampa Bay Rays, while Groome is currently a free agent and has yet to pitch in MLB.

Two players from the 2019 Wall team were also drafted, with left-hander pitcher Trey Dombroski currently pitching as a starter in the Houston Astros organization and 2020 Wall graduate Teddy Sharkey pitching in the Baltimore Orioles system as a right-handed reliever.

Fischer has a chance to surpass the MLB production of the vast majority of his Shore Conference predecessors thanks to the challenging path he has traveled as a collegiate player.

Andrew Fischer during his senior season at Wall. (Photo: Richard O'Donnell) - Andrew Fischer

Andrew Fischer during his senior season at Wall. (Photo: Richard O’Donnell)

Beginning the Journey

During its ascension toward the upper echelon of college baseball, Tennessee has played a villain role in the weekly soap opera that is baseball in the Southeastern Conference.

The Volunteers have become known for their brash, in-your-face attitude with the game to match: Tennessee won the 2024 NCAA College World Series and made it back to the Super-Regionals this past spring.

Some of the Vols’ best players during their recent run have epitomized that personality – centerfielder Drew Gilbert in 2022, second baseman Christian Moore in 2024 and left-handed ace Liam Doyle this past year. Gilbert (New York Mets) and Christian Moore (Los Angeles) Angels were first-round picks and Doyle – who was Fischer’s roommate this past year after both transferred from Ole Miss after 2024 – is a projected top 10 pick on Sunday.

The son of Wall varsity wrestling coach Brian Fischer, Andrew Fischer was not that cut from that cloth early in his college career, but perhaps it was bubbling under the surface. He took over as Wall’s closer during his final two seasons in high school and when he hit one of his nine career home runs (see below), Fischer took the opportunity to fire up the dugout. He would hit a home run later in his college career that looked similar and was seen by a lot more people.

In his first college season, Fischer broke the freshman home run record at Duke in 2023, when the Blue Devils were loaded with graduate transfers who showed Fischer the ropes and set the expectations for the younger players on the team. Fischer took notice.

“I’m 18 years old, fresh out of high school and we have 24 and 25 year-old graduate transfers on the team because of the COVID year and those older guys, they don’t put up with B.S. If you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, they will take your stuff and tell you not to come back. Once you prove what you’re about, they are in your corner.

“You learn how to embrace the ways of college baseball and once you get comfortable, you realize it’s still baseball. Everyone is really good, but the names don’t matter. Hitting 90 or 95 miles-and-hour is the same no matter how high someone is ranked on the draft board. You just have to prepare and then go out and compete.”

While at Duke, Fischer also couldn’t help but notice the baseball that was being played in the SEC and the opportunities and accolades the conference’s best players were collecting. After Louisiana State University won the 2023 College World Series, LSU’s two best players – Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews – were selected with the first two picks of the 2023 MLB Draft. With the fourth pick of the same draft, the Texas Rangers selected Wyatt Langford out of the University of Florida – the national runner-up to LSU in the College World Series.

Both Skenes and Langford were in the Major Leagues by early 2024 and Crews got the call later that same season. Langford was on the Rangers’ opening day Roster in 2024 and Skenes started the 2024 All-Star Game for the National League and went on to win the National League Rookie of the Year.

The rest of the draft was loaded with players from the SEC, which has become the best conference in the country for prospective MLB talent. After a record-setting season at Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference – widely regarded as the second-most competitive conference in college baseball behind the SEC – Fischer wanted to see how he compared to the best in the country. He entered the transfer portal and chose the University of Mississippi – better known as Ole Miss.

“Originally, I was blind to it,” Fischer said of the SEC. “I had no idea what it was about, but it was really eye-opening to see guys like Skenes and Dylan Crews going at the top of the draft, plus guys like Langford and (2024 first-rounder) Jac Calglianone at Florida. Tennessee had Chase Dollander and Chase Burns projected to be high picks, so I just looked at what those guys were doing and I said, ‘I want in on that. I want to be that top guy.’”

In his first SEC season, Fischer did not just fit in; he stood out. He clubbed nine homers in his team’s first 15 games, including a three-homer game in mid-March, 2024. Fischer went on to bat .295 with team-highs in home runs (20) and RBI (57) while running a .397 on-base percentage and a .643 slugging percentage. The performance at the plate netted him a second-team All-SEC selection and put him on the first-round radar for the 2025 MLB Draft – the first draft he would be eligible for after going undrafted out of Wall in June of 2022.

‘Cape Dreams’

With an All-SEC season and a soaring draft stock, Fischer decided to enter back into the transfer portal and find an opportunity that would both land him a pre-draft payday via NIL and also challenge him to get better. He also landed a spot with the Brewster Whitecaps in the Cape Cod Baseball League during the summer, giving Fischer a chance to play with some of the best college talent in the country in a setting that MLB scouts view as a proving ground for prospects in the upcoming drafts.

Author Mark Epstein chronicled the Whitecaps’ season in a recently-released book, Cape Dreams: A Season With the Brewster Whitecaps, and Fischer’s confidence and leadership were the traits that stood out in Epstein’s account.

“There is nothing boring about Andrew Fischer,” Epstein wrote.

Prior to an at-bat with the bases loaded, Fischer called his shot, telling the rest of the dugout that they should “Figure out what the home celebration is going to be. I’m about to hit a grand slam.”

On the third pitch of his at-bat, to the delight of his teammates, Fischer blasted a grand slam.

Fischer – whom Epstein nicknamed “Kid Brett” for his “boyish personality” that reminded the author of National Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett – added a 5-for-5 game with two home runs before cutting his summer short due to a back injury. Despite the early departure, Fischer left the Cape with a heightened sense for the culture of a baseball team, a sense that would serve him well acclimating to his third college team in three years.

“The best memories are made during the bus rides and in the dugouts,” Fischer told Epstein. “Developing vulnerable-based trust with your teammates brings about mutual respect. During a season, you spend ten to twelve hours each day with your teammates. Playing a practicing takes up only a small part of the time. You must be willing to open up and become vulnerable.

“We developed a culture in Brewster that was second to none.”

Chasing a Championship

During Fischer’s CCBL season, he went on college visits in search of his next home and decided Knoxville was the right place for him. Tennessee was coming off a College World Series championship and looking to add an impact middle-of-the-order bat.

Fischer turned out to be the ideal fit for the Vols as well. In his third college season, Fischer blasted 25 home runs – good for third in all of Division I – while posting a .341 batting average and team highs in on-base percentage (.497), slugging percentage (.760) and RBI (65). With those 25 home runs, Fischer was the first Tennessee player to lead the SEC in home runs since Hall of Fame first baseman Todd Helton.

Coming off his sophomore season, Fischer set out to improve his plate discipline while cutting his strikeouts and he succeeded in completely flipping his walk and strikeout rates. From sophomore to junior year, his walk-rate jumped from 13.5 percent to 21 and he cut his strikeout rate from 20 percent to 14. The result was a batting average that improved by 46 points and an on-base percentage that improved by a full 100 points.

Former Wall standout Andrew Fischer during his All-American season at Tennessee in 2025 (Credit: Elliot Walker/Tennessee Athletics) - Andrew Fischer

Former Wall standout Andrew Fischer during his All-American season at Tennessee in 2025 (Credit: Elliot Walker/Tennessee Athletics)

“As I have matured, I have realized in the offseason, I need to lock in on a few things and really hammer away at them to try to improve,” Fischer said. “You’re punching the clock every day, focusing on those one or two things that you want to improve. Before this season, I really locked in on my plate discipline. I have always been able to take my walks, but I wanted to get the next level where I am only swinging at the pitches I want to hit and doing damage on every swing.”

Hitting in the middle of the Tennessee batting order put Fischer in the national spotlight. In the NCAA regional tournament, he homered in back-to-back games against Wake Forest, including a two-run shot in the decisive third game that proved to be an early dagger in an 11-5 Tennessee victory that sent the Vols to the super regional. Prior to the game, Fischer put out a call to the Tennessee fans to bring the energy and as he walked to the plate before his home run, he attempted to fire the crowd up, which drew some muttering and disapproving looks from the Wake Forest dugout.

“As a freshman, I can remember being intimidated by some of the older players at first,” Fischer said. “It’s confidence through experience. As you put in the work and put in the time playing against good players, it pays you back with confidence. Now, as a junior, I have the ability to intimidate. That was a freshman on the mound in the Wake Forest game, so when I was coming up to bat, I wanted to create an environment that was intimidating for him so that our team would have an edge. It might come off as selfish to some people, but it’s all about competing with your teammates, supporting them and doing what it takes to win.”

On a 1-2 pitch, Fischer launched a two-run home run to make the score 8-2 in the fourth inning and pounded his chest as he rounded first base, again imploring the home crowd to get loud.

“I blacked out going around the bases so I couldn’t tell you what I was thinking,” Fischer said. “It was about 12,000 people going crazy so you just kind of get caught up in it.”

Against SEC rival Arkansas in the super regional, Fischer drew the wrath of Razorbacks left-handed ace Zach Root, who took exception to the way Fischer was demonstrably taking pitches – in the same vein as the Soto Shuffle made popular by Mets outfielder Juan Soto. After striking getting him to roll into an inning-ending double-play, Root yelled at Fischer all the way back to the dugout, with several of his teammates restraining him as Fischer walked away.

Arkansas went on to end Tennessee’s season in the super regional, completing what turned out to be a First-Team All-American campaign for Fischer.

Waiting for the Call

After heading out to the MLB Draft Combine at Chase Field in Phoenix last month, Fischer finished up his audition for the 30 teams that could potential select the Wall native. Fischer grew up a Yankees fan and would have to last until the 39th pick in order to end up with his hometown team. While Fischer’s range is typically projected anywhere from pick 15 to pick 40, most draft prognosticators figure Fischer will be drafted earlier than 39, with the middle of the first round the ceiling for his draft position.

Baseball America currently ranks Fischer 28th in the draft class, while ESPN has him 24th and MLB Pipeline 29th.

“I have an idea about the range I can expect, but it’s so hard to tell how it’s going to play out,” Fischer said. “My advisors have given me an idea about ‘If this guy goes here, then you could go here.’ There is a lot to it and at the end of the day, it’s out of my control so I’m just going to find out when the time comes. Everything else I hear, I just try to take with a grain of salt.”

Fischer has experience playing third base in college and a team that drafts him could give him a chance to prove he can handle third base, but the current consensus is that Fischer will end up playing a quality first base as a pro. Ultimately, Fischer’s combination of hitting ability, strike-zone awareness and power from the left-handed batter’s box is what makes him a surefire day one pick and potential first-round selection.

Fischer even indicated that some club representatives indicated that they thought he had a chance to play in the Major Leagues before the end of the season – a rarity for players to do in the same year in which they are drafted. More than likely, if Fischer carries his college success over to the minor leagues, he will have a chance to play for his MLB club by sometime in 2026. There are currently six players from the 2024 MLB Draft playing in the Major Leagues, including the former Tennessee standout Moore for Angels.

Whichever team turns in a draft card with Fischer’s name on it, that organization will be getting a player who knows how to execute a plan – both on the field and away from it. Sunday is all part of the plan as well, but it is not a part of the plan that Fischer can control. With that in mind, he plans on celebrating with family and friends while he waits to find out his new team.

“The Draft has never been the end goal for me,” Fischer said. “It’s the next step. It will be exciting, but it’s really just the kickstart to my career.”

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