ESPN's flattering comp for Mariners 1st-rounder Ace Reese will make fans beg

For the second time in as many years, the Seattle Mariners lucked into a player they didn't think would be available with their first draft pick. Sure, Ace Reese at No. 24 is no Kade Anderson at No. 3. But Reese was generally considered a top-20 or even top-15 talent, and his profile is similar to that of a 2025 first-rounder who is currently destroying minor league pitching.

Reese is basically the new Andrew Fischer, at least if you hear it from Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. And it gets better with more detail: "Scouts argued that Reese has the same bat-to-ball ability and defensive ability along with more raw power than Fischer did at draft time."

More raw power than Fischer? That doesn't sound possible. The 22-year-old is 76 games into his first professional season in the Milwaukee Brewers organization, and he already has 29 home runs. He also has a .405 ISO, which easily leads all hitters in all levels of the minors.

Just on these grounds, Reese-to-Fischer is an encouraging comp. And yeah, it is a bit more relevant than the aesthetic comp to Carlos González that we threw out there on Saturday.

For what it's worth, the 21-year-old Reese had a .385 ISO in his final season with Mississippi State, compared to a .419 ISO for Fischer in his final season at Tennessee. Both of those are SEC schools, so we're unfortunately not talking about an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Yet setting aside present and future differences for in-game power, that Reese could have more raw power than Fischer did when the Brewers chose him at No. 20 overall is believable enough. Fischer is a sturdy 6-foot, 210 pounds, yet Reese has four inches on him and is listed at 220 pounds. He was known for hitting tanks for the Bulldogs, including one on June 7 that Mariners scouting director Scott Hunter joked "is still going."

Andrew Fischer's timeline could be a model for how soon Ace Reese joins the Mariners

As easy as it would seem to hype Fischer as a future star, MLB Pipeline only has him ranked as the Brewers' No. 7 prospect. It seems a bit harsh for a guy with that much power, but it's the Spencer Jones curse: Where there is lots of power, there just isn't much else.

The same fear also applies to Reese, whose power doesn't come with much in the way of athleticism and does come with real swing-and-miss issues. He's already one of the Mariners' better prospects, but arguably more in a "top-10" way than a "top-five" way.

Regardless, the possibility of Reese following the same path as Fischer is promising. Fischer started out at High-A and needed only 73 games there before he got bumped to Double-A in June, less than a year out from the 2025 draft. He's got a 2027 ETA, and maybe on the earlier side if he keeps this up.

If Reese can go at that pace, it's possible he'll make it to Seattle before his two-year draft anniversary in 2028. It wouldn't be a long wait in the scheme of things, and the thought of him sharing a lineup with Julio Rodríguez, Cal Raleigh and Lazaro Montes is worth crossing fingers for.

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