Brewers sign 2025 first-round pick to under slot deal

For the fifth time in the last six years, the Milwaukee Brewers selected a college bat with their first selection in the MLB Draft. Last year's selection of prep outfielder Braylon Payne was the first instance since 2019 that the Brewers' front office didn't go the college bat route with their first-round pick. The choice this year was the Tennessee Volunteers standout first baseman Andrew Fischer, marking the second straight year that the Brewers drafted a first baseman out of the University of Tennessee, with Blake Burke joining the organization in last year’s draft.

Fischer is an exciting addition to the Brewers farm system, as he comes with a powerful left-handed swing that generates plus power to all fields. Despite playing mostly first base with the Volunteers a season ago, Fischer does have experience at third base as well, and the Brewers will surely try him out at the hot corner as he progresses through their minor league system.

The selection of Fischer with the 20th overall pick in last week's MLB Draft was just the first step in adding him to the Brewers' loaded farm system. The two sides still had to agree on a signing bonus that both parties felt was a fair assessment of Fischer's value. Now, ten days after the draft completed, that number has been agreed upon.

Brewers reportedly sign first-round pick Andrew Fischer to $3.5 million signing bonus, roughly $750k below slot value

According to Baseball America, the Brewers and Fischer have agreed to a signing bonus of $3.5 million. The reported contract continues a now four-year trend of the Brewers signing their first-round pick to a below-slot-value signing bonus, with the last Brewers first-round pick to earn an above-slot signing bonus being Sal Frelick in 2021, who signed for roughly $110k above his pick's value.

The trend is no coincidence. In fact, if you continue backwards past the Frelick pick in 2021, you have to go back to 2018 when the Crew selected Brice Turang with the 21st overall pick to find another Brewers first-round selection who signed for above-slot value. The front office's recent strategy, as it was again this year, is to save money on their early picks and then apply those savings to the late-round prep selections that they generally load up on — this year, just two of their picks from rounds 11-20 were not high schoolers.

The strategy is once again working in their favor, as just one of the nine draft picks that the Brewers have signed so far has agreed to a contract above-slot value. As such, the Brewers should have plenty of money to lure some of their prep selections, such as Cooper Underwood and Gavin Lauridsen, away from their college commitments.

The deadline to sign draft picks is Monday, July 28, so expect plenty of news on the draft pick signing front this weekend. To keep up with all of the Brewers draft news, be sure to follow along with Reviewing the Brew's draft picks signing tracker (link provided below).

Milwaukee Brewers 2025 draft picks signing tracker