MLP 2025 Offseason Premier Trade and Keeper Grades

For the first time in MLP’s history, we finally have some continuity. Kind of. With the league’s new keeper system, teams had to drop at least 1 of their 4 rostered players. The dropped UPA signed players are eligible to be selected to a team in the Premier and Challenger auctions drafts in early March along with any other un-rostered UPA signed players. While the entire off-season process for MLP must be rather confusing to the average, not fully tuned in fan, it is also arguably the most unique off-season process in professional sports that MLP is still working on getting right.

Beyond the convoluted nature of all the different moves teams are making, the more troubling aspect of this 2025 off-season is the way it is being handled by teams across the league. There should be serious cause for concern that the lack of buy-in from and/or incentive for Premier level teams to field competitive rosters has the potential to undermine the competitive integrity of the league. While tank mode can be a legitimate team building strategy in other pro sports leagues in the hopes of getting a higher draft pick, there is no incentive for being bad in MLP other than to recoup money.

Others have already pointed that the league may simply end up being a group of have’s and have not’s, and the announcements of keepers and drops on Tuesday furthers that narrative in our view. Although MLP has often said that they want to take things from European soccer (shorter regular season, team cups, promotion/relegation), we are curious why MLP is trending more and more towards an NBA model (meaningless regular season, mid-season tournament and play-in games for playoffs). The lack of parity that may be apparent across the league threatens to remove any meaning from the league’s regular season, which is likely one of the biggest reasons for the NBA’s downward trending viewership.  

We understand that the league wants to recoup money using this auction style draft. However, without a salary cap and a minimum spend salary floor for all teams, the wrong incentives are in place to promote consistent competition across the entire league (we may expand on this in a future post).

This is not meant to be an entirely doom and gloom introductory outlook in our first post back and we hope our reading of the tea leaves is an incorrect long-term interpretation, but we are not optimistic about the early 2025 signs MLP is showing.

Enough of that, though. We had 22 teams that had to make fantasy football-esque keeper decisions, and we are determined to give current offseason grades for every single Premier team today (Challenger grades will come out tomorrow or Friday). As a disclaimer, these trade/keeper grades are preliminary as we can only speculate on how the move fits into each team’s auction draft plans. Furthermore, the grades are based on how we see the moves impacting each team’s on-court performance in 2025 and beyond – we are not grading the moves on anything else (i.e. saving an ownership group money).

Tank Mode?

New York Hustlers

NY Trade: Jackie Kawamoto to DC for Vivian Glozman and cash

NY Trade: CJ Klinger to Columbus for Riley Newman and cash

NY Trade: Vivian Glozman to Atlanta for Susannah Barr and cash

Drop: Jack Sock, Riley Newman, Lea Jansen

Roster: None

Where else would we start other than the team we spent the last year running as General Managers? After we were let go by the Hustlers, it was hard to figure out the direction of the franchise with the trades of both Jackie Kawamoto and CJ Klinger, the team’s two most consistent players. There were obvious flaws with the 2024 version of the Hustlers, but we definitely didn’t expect to see a complete wholesale change.

It is one thing to try to recoup some money, but the Hustlers appear to be heading in the direction of full tank mode. Tank mode only makes sense from a financial perspective in MLP because you’re not getting a top draft pick or the best odds at a top draft pick by going full tank.

The thing is, the Hustlers could have gone partial cost-saving mode and still put together a relatively competitive team. Instead, they opted to recoup as much money as possible – reportedly close to $600,000. We also have to assume that there was no trade market out there for Jack Sock ($275K to keep) and Lea Jansen ($77K to keep), who must have been shopped around by the Hustlers to other teams.

As an aside, it could be problematic if the Hustlers, who should be one of the flagship franchises in MLP, due to their marketing and ownership, do not feel it is worthwhile to be competitive.

We could be wrong with our prediction and we shall see what happens on draft day, but we expect the Hustlers will spend the minimum $10K on each player to round out some version of a roster that will be a bottom feeding team outside of a miraculous drafting effort.

Grade: D

Championship or Bust

DC Pickleball Team

DC Pickleball Team Trade: Vivian Glozman and cash to NY for Jackie Kawamoto

NY Hustlers Trade: Jackie Kawamoto

Drop: James Ignatowich

Roster: Rachel Rohrabacher, Jackie Kawamoto, Dekel Bar

It is very clear that money is no object for owner, Al Tylis, when it comes to MLP. We’d be curious to hear Tylis’s unfiltered thoughts on MLP’s long-term prospects as he is the only member of UPA’s top brass that seems to really like and care about MLP on a personal level.

In terms of their off-season moves, getting Jackie Kawamoto is a big win for DC. Kawamoto was the rock and glue that held the NY Hustlers together in 2024, and she moves the needle closer to a championship roster for DC.  

Despite some power and size limitations, Kawamoto is elite when it comes to controlling the game at the kitchen. We’ll be curious to see what DC does strategically with Rohrabacher and Kawamoto, and if they decide to stack either player on the left.

Those who have been following along closely should not have been surprised to see DC drop James Ignatowich. He is an elite mixed player, but he hasn’t been able to sort out his men’s game that has plateaued into a pretty average Premier level one. Ignatowich simply hasn’t taken the leap in men’s doubles that DC was banking on when they drafted him last year and it has forced their hand to keep the steadier and cheaper, Dekel Bar.

DC needs to find a #1 male in the draft to field a contending team. You have to think that DC is eyeing another 2023 championship roster reunion after Riley Newman was dropped by the NY Hustlers. Newman is a diminishing asset in 2025, but he brings a foundational level of capability that is going to be hard to match in the auction draft. Tylis is a big Riley Newman fan as well.

Grade: B+

Columbus Sliders

Columbus Trade: Riley Newman and cash to NY for CJ Klinger

Columbus Trade: Jay Devilliers and cash to PHX for Andrei Daescu 

Drop: Callie Smith

Roster: Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, Parris Todd

We had been confused by the Sliders over the past year. The Sliders, along with 10 of the other Premier teams, spent close to the max amount that they could in the 2024 draft auction. They ran the 2024 season without any permanent front office personnel or coach in place and their owner, David Kass, only showed up at some of the events. They swapped out three-quarters of their team during a disappointing 2024 season and did not appear to have much direction going into the offseason.

Their direction is now abundantly clear with the acquisitions of CJ Klinger and Andrei Daescu. Columbus wants to win. Like, they want to win badly. 

Columbus is motivated to be a ‘have’ team in MLP and is going to spend over $350K combined to keep their current roster together, plus the money they spent to acquire Daescu and Klinger. That’s no joke but, if money is not an issue, Columbus may have revamped this team into a legitimate player in the MLP landscape.

The big concern for this team is who will they get to play the left-side with Klinger and Todd. Parris is a better right-side player, and it is going to be very difficult to find a strong women’s doubles and mixed left-side female. If you are David Kass, don’t you have to call the Brooklyn Aces and try to do whatever it takes to pry Mari Humberg from them? That is, assuming Brooklyn does not have a backdoor deal in place with New Jersey already.  

Columbus is not going to be shy about spending money so they should be able to put together a quality team. A less ideal scenario would be running this team with a player like Callie Smith and put them into the category of uninspiring playoff teams. If they can find something better, the sky could be the limit for Columbus.

Grade: B+

What’s the Plan?

Carolina Pickleball Club

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

Drop: Yana Newell

Roster: Ben Johns, Collin Johns, Kaitlyn Christian

So, Carolina is running back the most depressing MLP partnership of 2024, Ben and Collin. Tom Dundon keeps Ben in his control and big brother Collin gets to continue as part of an MLP team when he very evidently is not a Premier level player at this point.

Offloading Buckner to a Challenger team to recoup a little bit of cash was logical enough when they were going to drop her anyway, except it removes a Premier level female player from the player pool and will make it that much harder for Carolina to find a second female.

It’s just hard to believe that Dundon cares at all about putting a championship level team together. In what felt like a middle finger to MLP, Dundon spent next to nothing in last year’s draft to fill out the remaining 3 non-Ben roster spots despite having more than enough money left to put together a contending team. Although there is some argument to say that Collin belongs in 2025 Premier as a high-end men’s doubles team with Ben, it has become apparent that Ben is no longer a lock to secure two matches for his team and he needs more from a #2 male than what Collin provides.

Kaitlyn Christian is a clear Premier female, but this team isn’t going to be a contender with her as their #1 female either.

We’ll be surprised if Carolina does anything other than spend the minimum on their remaining 3 roster spots and, if that prediction comes true, it will solidify that Dundon is not inclined to put forth any real effort into the success of his MLP team. We’ll have to wait and see.

Grade: C+

Phoenix Flames (formerly AZ Drive)

Phoenix Trade: Lacy Schneemann and Dylan Frazier to Orlando for Meghan Dizon, Tyson McGuffin and $25,000

Phoenix Trade: Andrei Daescu to Columbus for Jay Devilliers and cash

Drop: Jay Devilliers

Roster: Tyson McGuffin, Meghan Dizon and Jessie Irvine

What is Phoenix doing? The new ownership group, including Proton owner, Charles Darling, spent a bunch of money to buy a majority stake in this team. They proceed to trade 75% of their roster, which included acquiring Proton sponsored Dizon but then subsequently trading away their marquee Proton player, Andrei Daescu. They have built their team around an aging (maybe ageless?) Tyson McGuffin and two right-side women who can’t play singles well?

There will be significant cost savings with Andrei’s $275,000 price tag plus the cash they received from Columbus in the trade, savings which they could use to spend for a second male in the auction draft.

It is very possible Phoenix is going to use its savings to go all-in on Quang Duong, who looks like he’ll be a Proton sponsored player after his contract with Selkirk ends soon. Still, it’s hard to see what this roster gets Phoenix, even if they can add a top guy from the player pool.  

Phoenix will likely be competitive enough to be in the mix for a playoff spot, but that’s not saying much when so many teams make the playoffs and there are going to be a few very bad teams.  

Grade: C-

Utah Black Diamonds

No Trades

Drop: Genie Bouchard

Roster: Tyler Loong, Connor Garnett, Alix Truong

Utah is a funny team because they started out last year with zero intentions of being competitive in Premier. As every other team spent close to the maximum amount during the auction draft, Connor Pardoe made a concerted effort to avoid spending any of his own money by drafting a team of middling Utah based players and Tyson McGuffin. Tyson demanded a trade immediately following the draft and Pardoe was able to parlay McGuffin into Jay Devilliers and some cash. Pardoe continued making moves as the season progressed that were financially rather than competitively motivated.

Fortunately for Utah, they were handed a lifeline by the Columbus Sliders as they traded Jay Devilliers for Connor Garnett, whose value had taken a nosedive in the months after the draft. Loong and Garnett proceeded to form a solid partnership and friendship as Utah became one of the friskier teams that no one in MLP wanted to play. Utah was able to offload Callie Smith before the 2024 trade deadline for some extra cash and now sit in the position of needing someone to fill out a left-side female role.

Long story short, Utah will be competitive in 2025 with 3 Premier capable players on their roster at a relatively low cost ($99,500 more than they spent last year!). Similarly to Carolina, the question for Utah and their Commissioner and CEO of the PPA is whether they have any interest in trying to win. The roster is good enough that Utah can pretend like it is trying to be competitive but it’s close to a stone-cold lock that they don’t spend any serious money in an effort to push themselves closer to relevancy.  

Grade: B-

Uninspiring Playoff Teams

LA Mad Drops

No Trades

Drop: Thomas Wilson

Roster: Hunter Johnson, Catherine Parenteau, Jade Kawamoto

The Mad Drops never had a chance in 2024 with the Thomas Wilson health issues requiring them to find a replacement for their #1 guy. In spite of that, the Mad Drops were somewhat competitive and even made a sort of late push for a playoff spot at the end of the season.

LA didn’t miss on any of their 2024 draft picks, but they also didn’t hit any home runs last year. In this 16-team Premier division, they are going to be better than probably half of the league, but it will likely be a bumpy road for them to take down any of the contending teams. The Mad Drops were in an awkward position where there weren’t really any trades to make to get substantially better. However, sticking with the status quo may not get them anything more than being a competitive, middle of the pack playoff team.

We should note that we disagreed on where this team fit in our made up categories. The flip side to the above is that the ownership group has shown they will spend money and someone like James Ignatowich could be a strong fit to give two good mixed teams along with a strong women’s team.

Grade: B-

Orlando Squeeze

Orlando Trade: Meghan Dizon, Tyson McGuffin and $25,000 to Phoenix for Lacy Schneemann and Dylan Frazier

Drop: Vivienne David

Roster: Federico Staksrud, Dylan Frazier and Lacy Schneemann

Orlando is a weird team. They have the guy who is the number 1 ranked singles and men’s doubles player on tour (pre-Adidas paddle) at an affordable price tag relative to other top men. They trade for Dylan Frazier, who is friends with Staksrud and trains with him in Florida. Frazier may be overpriced as a #2 guy, but he is probably a slight overall upgrade from Tyson McGuffin, especially if he has a better paddle in his hands.

The bigger concern for Orlando is how much does Staksrud care about MLP? Towards the end of a long, grindy season, Staksrud looked completely checked out of MLP and it sounds like he hasn’t fully bought in to the team pickleball concept.

Inconsistencies aside, Lacy Schneemann has become a high-quality asset in 2025. Dare we say it, Orlando may have stolen Schneemann from Phoenix. Even if we aren’t sold that she will ever make the leap to an elite left sider, she is the lowest cost, true left-side female out there. It was an easy decision to keep Schneemann after Vivienne David’s stock has fallen further than any other woman in pro pickleball since the 2024 draft.

Orlando is not afraid to spend some money and have proven to be one of the most all-around invested franchises in MLP. A revamped roster at least brings some hope to the Squeeze, who could not have been looking forward to trying to run back some version of their final 2024 roster. At the same time, they’re going to need to invest big time to get a #2 female or they will be stuck in semi-competitive purgatory in 2025.  

Grade: B

Contenders That Did Not Want to Drop Anyone

Dallas Flash

No Trades

Drop: Augie Ge

Roster: JW Johnson, Jorja Johnson, Hurricane Tyra Black

They just won a championship. The male talent pool is way deeper. The only question for Dallas is whether they spend up to ensure they bring back Augie Ge, or do they have someone else in mind as a cheaper or better option? Erik Tice from The Dink reported that Dallas rejected multiple “high level” offers for Ge, which would indicate they intend to try to select him in the auction draft.

The grade below is really a default grade for building a quality team last year.

Grade: A

New Jersey 5’s

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

Drop: Amanda Hendry

Roster: Anna Leigh Waters, Will Howells, Zane Navratil

After building an almost championship roster in 2025, the 5’s had a tough decision to make, and they decided to go with Mari Humberg by trading her to Brooklyn for some cash.

We have come up with 2 scenarios as the justification for Humberg’s departure. Scenario #1, the 5’s decided Navratil and Howells were too important, and did not want another team to have a shot at Humberg in Premier so they would rather get some cash and send her to Challenger. Scenario #2, they have some kind of backdoor deal with Brooklyn where, after the Premier and Challenger drafts, Brooklyn will trade Humberg back to New Jersey in exchange for a player NJ selects on Brooklyn’s behalf and some cash.

Scenario #1 doesn’t make a lot of sense to us. Unless the 5’s are willing to spend whatever it takes to get their female target, putting Humberg in Challenger further diminishes the already scarce player pool for Premier women and will make it that much harder to get another woman in the draft. Not to mention it takes away any chance the 5’s would have to buy Humberg back. The better option would seem to have been to drop Navratil and take the risk in the auction that Zane’s value is far higher to NJ than it is to any other team in MLP.

Scenario #2 would be contrary to the spirit of the auction draft-keeper system that has been implemented, but it would be commendably creative of NJ to have found a workaround loophole to guarantee their roster stays intact for 2025.

New Jersey is going to be good regardless of what they do but, if scenario #1 is the direction they have opted for, we do not agree with their choice to trade Humberg.

Grade for Scenario #1: C

Grade for Scenario #2: A+

Update: GM for Atlanta Bouncers, Leigh Anne Rehkopf, clarified that teams cannot trade back players post-draft until the waiver period in July. This means Scenario #2 is not in play.

St. Louis Shock

No Trades

Drop: Kate Fahey

Roster: Anna Bright, Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio

This is another one that went as expected based on the rumblings we had heard. We think there is a strong argument to be made that dropping one of the guys was the savvier move because there is such a big risk of not being able to find a quality female to round out this roster. On the other hand, we understand why the Shock opted to keep its three best players as it still remains to be seen whether Fahey is going to figure out how to push her doubles game a couple of levels higher.

St. Louis will spend to the wall so it’s very possible they get Fahey in the auction or Anna Bright has another female in mind that will ensure St. Louis is pretty much guaranteed to be a top 4 team in MLP.

Grade: B

Texas Ranchers

No Trades:

Drop: Quang Duong

Roster: Christian Alshon, Etta Wright, Tina Pisnik

The Ranchers put together a strong roster in the draft last year but made the mistake of selecting Pablo Tellez with their last pick with CJ Klinger and Jaume Martinez Vich on the board. You can’t expect perfection in any draft and what the Ranchers did really well was essentially admitting their mistake when they chose to pick Quang Duong up on waivers. The Ranchers shrewdly identified Duong as an injury replacement for Christian Alshon for the DC event and correctly decided the risk was worth the reward to go with Duong for the rest of the season.

As a waiver pick-up, Duong had to be dropped and there was no reason for the Ranchers to do anything other than keep their remaining squad together. The Ranchers have a contending team, but their fatal flaw is having two below average Dreambreaker women on their roster. Dreambreaker importance is a never ending debate and more teams have realized singles play should not be prioritized at the expense of doubles prowess. But it’s really hard to win Dreambreakers the way the Ranchers are built.

For better or for worse, the main factor for us when we opted for Lea Jansen instead of Tina Pisnik during the draft, despite Pisnik being a couple slots higher on our board, was that we had thought before the draft that we didn’t want to construct a roster with two average or below average female Dreambreaker players. Jackie Kawamoto more than earned her keep as a #2 Dreambreaker woman, but you don’t feel nearly as good if she’s your best Dreambreaker woman.

The Ranchers are a well-built team and should be in a good spot no matter what happens in the auction draft for their 2^nd male spot. The lack of Dreambreaker capability in their women could end up being too much to overcome when all is said and done at the end of the season.

Grade: B

Promoted Challenger Teams

Atlanta Bouncers

Atlanta Trade: Susannah Barr and cash to NY fot Vivian Glozman

Drop: Emily Cederquist

Roster: Jaume Martinez Vich, Todd Fought, Vivian Glozman

The Bouncers are the only team coming from Challenger that has a chance to compete in Premier because they have Jaume Martinez Vich. With Martinez Vich as the foundation for their team, they paid good cash to take Glozman off the hands of the NY Hustlers, setting the stage to easily construct the best roster of the promoted teams.

Martinez Vich is a top half male in MLP and brings high end singles to a Dreambreaker. It’s unclear what Glozman will end up being as a player, especially if she isn’t playing any PPAs with her contract situation. Nevertheless, she brings elite physical tools, upside and versatility to play both side in women’s. Todd Fought is capable for $0 but we expect Atlanta will be looking to upgrade their 2^nd men’s spot in the auction draft or on waivers during the season.

With very few options out there for the promoted Challenger teams, the Bouncers took advantage of the Hustlers everything must go sale and should field at least a semi-competitive roster in 2025.

Grade: A-

Chicago Slice

No Trades

Drop: Jack Munro, Brendon Long, Megan Fudge, Allison Harris

Roster: None

Not a single player on the Slice 2024 roster is a UPA signed player for 2025, so they had to drop their entire team. By default, Chicago will not get a good grade but it’s really through no fault of their own. It could be a sad 2025 season for this team having to either spend ridiculous amounts of money to field an okay at best team or fill out the roster on the cheap in the hopes you find a diamond or two in the rough.

Grade: Incomplete

Miami Pickleball Club

No Trades

Drop: Noe Khlif, Bobbi Oshiro

Roster: Eric Oncins, Milan Rane

The inability for these Challenger teams who made winning waiver moves in 2024 to keep their players in 2025 just makes it so hard for them to compete this year. Noe Khlif is a UPA signed player but, as a waiver pickup, he is ineligible to be kept. Bobbi Oshiro was never a signed UPA player and had to be dropped as a waiver pickup anyway.

Eric Oncins is a rising talent, and Milan Rane is a Premier level woman in 2025. At a minimum, Oncins is a legit guy that Miami can build around for the future. It is not necessarily going to make them competitive without spending a lot of money in the auction draft, but they have more hope than the Slice or Hard Eights at this moment.

Grade: B

SoCal Hard Eights

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

Drop: Max Manthou

Roster: Erik Lange, Irina Tereschenko, Judit Castillo

With the addition of Yana Newell last year, the Hard Eights were able to put together a good team as they hit on their final pick of Max ‘Purple Jesus’ Manthou. Unfortunately for SoCal, Manthou is not UPA signed so he had to be dropped. Lange and Tereschenko are still on their original MLP deals but really aren’t Premier players.

Lange is a high-end teammate but a flawed MLP fit in 2025. Lange can definitely hold up as a right-side guy in Premier but he offers below average mixed and singles. Irina only plays MLP now and her game is steadily declining.

We didn’t actually understand the Judit Castillo pick-up. There aren’t going to be that many women out there in the auction but Castillo’s results have been trending down in both doubles and singles in recent months. Castillo is a replacement level Challenger player and our take is that you might as well have take two shots at hitting big on a female pick in the draft, if you’re not going to be competitive in 2025.  

It’s going to be a tough year for SoCal.

Grade: C 

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