MLP 2025 Offseason Challenger Trade and Keeper Grades

If you had trouble caring about Challenger in 2024, you might really have a hard time caring about Challenger in 2025. We haven’t run through the scenarios in-depth to get a concrete idea of what Challenger rosters will look like with additional teams and expanded rosters in Premier.  But we currently are not inspired by the situation. We also are unsure of what is going to happen beyond 2025 and whether there will even be a Challenger division after this year.

Premier Offseason Grades

The weirdest part about Challenger is that it looks like there are going to be a handful of Premier capable women are stuck in Challenger. This could give an opportunity for Challenger teams to cash in following the draft as desperate Premier teams look for a way to stay relevant if things don’t go their way in the auction draft – that is, assuming teams don’t already having backdoor deals in place. Chao Yi ‘Zoey’ Wang, Mari Humberg, Brooke Buckner, Allyce Jones and Andrea Koop are all currently on Challenger rosters and it’s not going to feel right when we see a name like Pierina Imparato or Liz Truluck on a Premier roster instead of these aforementioned players.

Bay Area Breakers

No Trades

Drop: Jillian Braverman, Martin Emmrich, Collin Shick

Roster: Allyce Jones

Bay Area revamped their team in the first waiver period of 2024 after receiving $200K for Vivian Glozman from DC and adding the unsigned Jillian Braverman to the mix. It did not lead to a promotion for Bay Area and has essentially led to another rebuild for Bay Area. Collin Shick is going back to medical school and Jilly B is not UPA signed so they had to be dropped.

It was a little bit of a surprise to see Martin Emmrich get dropped given that he brings a baseline level of stability and professionalism to the team. On the other hand, we understand that Emmrich is probably close to tapped out on his potential given his age and recent results. It may be worth it for Bay Area to take a couple of shots on upcoming talent in the draft considering the uncertain need to be competitive in Challenger.

Will Bay Area end up selling Allyce Jones to a female needy team in Premier?

Grade: C+

Brooklyn Aces

Brooklyn Trade: Layne Sleeth to California for Amanda Hendry and cash

Brooklyn Trade: Pablo Tellez to Las Vegas for Blaine Hovenier and cash

Brooklyn Trade: Amanda Hendry and cash to New Jersey for Mari Humberg

Drop: Blaine Hovenier

Roster: Andrea Koop, Mari Humberg, Daniel De La Rosa

Brooklyn has been busy this offseason. After not spending the money to start in Premier last year, Brooklyn forked up some cash in 2024 in an attempt to earn their way to Premier with the acquisitions of Pablo Tellez and Andrea Koop. It did not work so they decided to recoup (KOOOP) some cash while also creating what should be a very dynamic Challenger women’s team with Humberg and Koop. Brooklyn also got some cash from California for Lina Padegimaite before the trade deadline last year.

The Pablo trade was somewhat surprising with his sponsor Lotto having a stake in the Brooklyn team. He’s a talented player but the red flags remain with Pablo as an MLP asset. We don’t quite get why they would keep Daniel De La Rosa. He’s not getting better and doesn’t put everything he has into pro pickleball. There has to be a guy with more upside out there.

Since we posted our Premier offseason grades, it has been confirmed to us that teams cannot make any tradebacks, which we had noted was a possibility for Mari Humberg with New Jersey. It’s bad for the league that Humberg is in Brooklyn but good for the Aces as one of the more intriguing, long-term female building blocks.

Grade: B+

California Black Bears

California Trade: Amanda Hendry and cash to Brooklyn for Layne Sleeth

California Trade: Chris Haworth and cash to Rafa Hewett

Drop: Brandon French

Roster: Rafa Hewett, Lina Padegimaite, Layne Sleeth

General life advice from the guys at NML: find someone who loves you as much as Ritchie Tuazon loves Rafa Hewett.

The fond memories of those BLQK championships in 2022 live on. The problem is that 2024 Rafa spent the first part of the year on a Challenger worst California team. He then got traded to Las Vegas where the Night Owls proceeded to drop out of a top 4 guaranteed promotion spot in the standings and failed to earn a promotion to Premier following a quarter-final loss.

The Black Bears should have a capable, if uninspiring, female duo. Lina Padegimaite fits into the ‘she is what she is’ category and Layne Sleeth needs to overhaul some fundamental aspects of her game if she is ever going to fulfill the theoretical potential she has. But they will hold up in 2025 Challenger.

California may well have a competitive roster for Challenger as the player pool is substantially thinner with 16, 6 player Premier rosters and only UPA signed players eligible to play. So maybe the Lina/Layne/Rafa trio is better than we are giving it credit for right now, but we are still not optimistic on the long-term prospects of this trio.

New year. New NML. Another sub-par NML grade for a Ritchie Tuazon owned team (ps. we’re still ready for our previously discussed Ritchie/Rafa match wager).

Grade: C+

Florida Smash

No Trades

Drop: Donald Young, Christa Gecheva

Roster: Travis Rettenmaier, Martina Frantova

One of the underrated funniest things in MLP is how little Travis Rettenmaier and Graham D’Amico seem to know about the MLP rules on their podcast, Tennis Sucks. Travis and Graham were legitimately surprised to learn after the season that they were unable to keep Donald Young because he was picked up as a waiver selection, even though it was made abundantly clear to teams that waiver pickups could not be kept in 2025. The podcast should be a regular listen for any pro pickleball fans but the Florida Smash attention to detail of the MLP rules has room for improvement.

The Smash should have a decent enough foundation for 2025 with Rettenmaier and Frantova. Frantova holds up at the Challenger level even if she is very Lina Padegimaite-esque if you’re doing a pros and cons list of pickleball traits. Travis is at the ‘he is what he is’ stage of his pickleball career given his age and results. His play is Premier capable-ish for 2025 standards.

Team building has not been a strong suit for the Florida Smash in its MLP history so we don’t have a lot of confidence they will make the right selections for the other 2 spots on their roster. Those 2 selections will go a long way in determining how good the team will be in 2025.

Grade: C+

Las Vegas Night Owls

Las Vegas Trade: Blaine Hovenier and cash to Brooklyn for Pablo Tellez

Las Vegas Trade: Rafa Hewett to California for Chris Haworth and cash

Las Vegas Trade: Judit Castillo to SoCal and cash to Carolina; Carolina Trade: Brooke Buckner to Las Vegas; SoCal Trade: Yana Newell and cash to Las Vegas

Drop: Chris Haworth

Roster: Pablo Tellez, Chao Yi (Zoey) Wang, Brooke Buckner 

Although Las Vegas appears set to dominate Challenger in 2025, we have learned from past mistakes that caution should be exercised when it comes to relying on historical results as a predictor future success at the Challenger level. The game changes so fast and it is becoming harder and harder for better players to dominate. Jillian Braverman and Kyle Yates could not get it done in season 2 of 2023 and legacy names like Tellez, Koop, Hewett and Radzikowska were unable to carry their Challenger teams to promotion in 2024.

The difference with Las Vegas is that Zoey Wang is a rising asset and should keep getting better. Tellez and Wang are both overqualified #1 slots for 2025 Challenger, and Brooke Buckner is a legitimate Premier player, even if we are not rosy on her outlook. The easiest thing to do in Challenger is find a 2^nd guy and there should be enough UPA signed players available to make something work for Las Vegas to be the best team this season.

Grade: A-

Nashville Pandas (soon to be renamed)

No Trades

Drop: Stefan Auvergne, Michael Loyd, Tammy Emmrich

Roster: Ewa Radzikowska

Frisco made a late push in the season for promotion buoyed by the energy and Tasmanian devil-ish play of Michael Loyd, who had to be dropped as a waiver pick-up along with Tammy Emmrich. Stefan Auvergne was understandably dropped as it has been evident for a little while that he is about tapped out on his potential as a pro player. Auvergne never was able to push his game to the next level after his strong run back in season 1 of 2023 with the DC Pickleball Team – aka. The Sam Querrey #1 overall team.

Ewa Radzikowski is the Challenger Queen and continues to bring a strong baseline level of play for that level. There isn’t a lot of upside with Radzikowska anymore, but she will be a good start for Nashville to build around. It’s hard to give this team a grade given how incomplete the roster is, but they get a slightly positive one for moving off Auvergne.

Grade: B

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