Andrew Fischer swung for history in 2026.
The Brewers’ No. 5 prospect finished with 48 home runs in the regular season between High-A Wisconsin and Double-A Biloxi. (He added two more in the Southern League postseason to finish with 50 in the Minor League calendar year, even if 48 is the number that will stick.) That comfortably led the Minor Leagues; Jesús Báez finished as his closest competition with 39 homers, while Lazaro Montes (who saw time in the Majors) and Billy Amick both finished with 38. No Brewers farmhand had led the Minors in home runs since Bill Foley went deep 34 times for Single-A Burlington in 1978.
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But that’s not the only history we’re talking about here.
Since the Majors adopted the 1963 Player Development Contract and officially created what we call the modern Minor Leagues, there have been only nine individual seasons with 46 or more home runs. Only two of those, Fischer’s included, have come this millennium, with Ryan Howard’s 46-homer campaign in 2004 being the other.
Most home runs in the Minor League Baseball modern era (since 1963)
1. Bill McNulty, Triple-A Sacramento, 1974; 55*
2. Gorman Thomas, Triple-A Sacramento, 1974; 51*
3. Ron Kittle, Triple-A Edmonton, 1982; 50
4. Tony Solaita, Single-A High Point-Thomasville, 1968; 49
5. ANDREW FISCHER, High-A Wisconsin/Double-A Biloxi, 2026; 48
T-6 Ryan Howard, Double-A Reading/Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 2004; 46
T-6. Chris Hatcher, Triple-A Omaha, 1998; 46
T-6. Ken Phelps, Triple-A Wichita, 1982; 46
T-6. Dave Duncan, Single-A Modesto, 1966; 46
In an odd twist, McNulty and Thomas both played for another Brewers affiliate in ‘74, but their performance with the Sacramento Solons came with some serious dashes of salt. As noted by the Baseball Hall of Fame, the previous Eugene Emeralds moved to the California capital for the 1974 season but needed to use Hughes Stadium at Sacramento City College – a facility typically reserved for football and track. As such, the left-field wall was only 233 feet away from home plate (with a 40-foot-high screen) and required a waiver from Minor League Baseball since it did not meet the 250-foot minimum standard for play. McNulty and Thomas – both being right-handed hitters – took advantage of the dimensions, and McNulty (a Sacramento native) even clubbed 44 of his 55 dingers at home.
Fischer had much more even splits by comparison this season, with 25 homers coming in Wisconsin and Biloxi home games and 23 coming on the road.
The left-handed slugger has been known for his slugging ability for years. He set the Duke freshman record with 11 homers in 2023 and put together back-to-back 20-homer seasons in the SEC with Mississippi (20) and Tennessee (25) in 2024 and 2025, respectively. His Volunteers total was tops in the mega conference as a junior. That prodigious pop led the Brewers to take Fischer 20th overall last year, and it’s taken little for him to show off that slugging ability on the pro side. In a sign of things to come, he even went deep in his first World Baseball Classic at-bat for Team Italy back on March 8, going yard out to right-center off Great Britain starter Owen Wild.
When the Midwest League concluded, the 22-year-old corner infielder finished with the seventh-most homers in the High-A circuit with 20, despite not having played there after June 13. His 28 homers ranked fourth in the Southern League, and he was the only one in the top eight with fewer than 400 plate appearances in the loop (he had 314).
COMPLETE BREWERS PROSPECT COVERAGE
With an uphill stroke and prodigious strength, Fischer’s game is designed uniquely well for the modern hitting philosophy that emphasizes pulling and lifting the ball with authority. His 56.8 percent flyball rate finished highest among Minor League full-season qualifiers, while his 55.0 percent pull rate placed him 14th on that list of 724. That approach comes with a heavy dose of swing-and-miss (33.0 percent strikeout rate), but his combination of angles and exit velocities have elicited the hopes of a Kyle Schwarber-like ceiling for Fischer from some within the Milwaukee organization.