MLP Trade Reactions – Texas/Miami, NJ/Phoenix and Hustlers Bench

The floodgates on Trade SZN was supposed to be opened after the Challenger draft was completed. However, we are now a full week removed from the start of the trade window opening and there have only been two significant trades that have been announced, one of which we already knew about prior to trade window opening up again.

There could be more trades to come. However, it is a little bit disappointing to only have two significant trades when the expectation was more. Almost like going to Chick-fil-A for the first time and finding out it isn’t even in the same stratosphere as In N Out. While we already gave some thoughts on the Phoenix-New Jersey trade, we thought we would give some thoughts on both official trades. 

Texas Ranchers Trade Noe Khlif to Miami PC for Eric Oncins and cash 

This trade caught us off-guard.  We really liked what Texas did in the draft. Despite appearing to have the budget to spend more than the 50,000 on Khlif based on their bidding patterns earlier in the draft, the Ranchers came away with an ascending talent who fit in well with the construction of their roster. Khlif is a high floor player who is adding more creativity and offence to his game.

The Ranchers used the cash they saved on Khlif to trade for Eric Oncins from Miami. Oncins is a dynamic player and probably has more potential ceiling than Khlif as a player. He does some eye-popping things on the court and brings the type of energy that will make he and Alshon very annoying for teams to play against.

Clearly, Texas is not afraid to make big moves as they have, once again, opted for the higher variance upside. This time with Oncins as opposed to the more guaranteed floor that Khlif would have provided. When championships are all that really matter in sports, we don’t hate the move at all from the Ranchers and fully understand that it can be worth it to take a shot at finding another Alshon level player.  

For context, we had Khlif as the higher ranked player on our boards prior to the draft, albeit not by an incredibly wide margin. What is more interesting from an analysis standpoint is that Miami knows both players intimately well from their time on the team last year and opted to go with Khlif along with some cash. If you are Texas, you are trading with a team that presumably should have better knowledge than you on the two guys.

It has been pointed out to us that Miami may not have seen a big difference between the two players and simply opted for the money, given that they barely spent any money during the draft. Still, if Miami really thought Oncins was a home run player of the future, it’s hard to believe they would give him up for a little bit of cash. 

Real Clear Stats provided some statistical comparison on X between Oncins and Khlif in MLP last year. Although it is good to have those stats, we have to keep in mind where those stats come from. Both Oncins and Khlif prefer the left side, and Khlif spent the entire Challenger season after he was picked up playing the right with Oncins in men’s. It is also not surprising that Oncins generates offense better than Khlif. 

We like both Oncins and Khlif as long-term assets. Outside of Jaume Martinez Vich, they were the two best male players coming from Challenger into Premier for this year. With our initial bias on this trade being clouded by the fact that we preferred Khlif going into the draft, what tips the scales for us in favor of giving the win to Miami is that they have, in effect, chosen Khlif over Oncins and somehow received money to boot. 

Phoenix Flames Trade Meghan Dizon to the New Jersey 5’s for Genie Bouchard and cash

We already went into some detail on how we see this trade impacting both the 5’s and the Flames in our draft grades. But we thought it would be good to go into some further detail after a couple of exchanges on X with the 5’s team account and Will Howells, where Howells made a joke about no one still believing in he and Zane. 

What we continue to have some trouble understanding is the 5’s approach to their keeper situation and whether they maximized the value they could get out of the situation. We have said it so many times now it might be getting nauseating but we still think the 5’s should have dropped Navratil and then picked him back up in the draft – this should have been close to a sure thing as no team was going to value Zane as much as the 5’s.

Leaving the money part out of the equation, keeping Mari Humberg could have provided the 5’s with more options. 

It seems evident that the 5’s did not want to keep Humberg on their roster. Despite their near Championship in 2024, Humberg is a tough fit as it forces ALW and Zane to play on the right. Mari and Zane did not win very much and that was unlikely to change in 2025. While we obviously were not involved in the many potential trade calls the 5’s must have been having with other teams and are only speculating, we have to believe Humberg could have been flipped for an even better right-side asset than Dizon. For example, Parris Todd with Columbus seems like she would have been an ideal fit for the 5’s. 

We also think that the 5’s may be overrating how seamlessly a new player, in this case Meghan Dizon, will fit in with the unique dynamic of the 5’s. As great as Anna Leigh Waters is, she is hard to play with simply because of how much pressure her partners feel in MLP with the feeling the need to win every match beside her. The 5’s found two rising players last year who are exceptionally (over?) confident in their abilities and that type of mindset is exactly what is needed to perform your best with ALW. 

Meghan Dizon does not seem to have that Humberg or Howells mindset. To be fair, most players don’t have that mindset.

In addition, the 5’s are no longer the stone cold lock in singles that they were with Humberg on the roster. Humberg is not a great singles player, but she is a higher end #2 female for MLP Dreambreaker purposes. Meghan Dizon is a bottom half or even bottom quarter percentile female singles player for MLP purposes. 

Last year, the 5’s did not have to go through the trials and tribulations that can come with ALW MLP losses because they didn’t really have them. If they start to lose a few more women’s matches and then aren’t able to pull out all the Dreambreaker wins, it could lead to some bumpier roads. 

Don’t get us completely wrong. The 5’s will still be very good and are undoubtedly a championship contender. That doesn’t mean we can’t be skeptical of the route they have taken to put the reintroduced version of the team on the court. 

That was a good number of words and we haven’t even gotten to the Flames yet as they now feature a roster of Jack Sock, Genie Bouchard, Tyson McGuffin and Jessie Irvine. The troubling thing about this team is that it feels like there is far more that can go wrong compared to what can go right. A lot of ‘if’s’. 

If Jack Sock continues to work at his game, which he apparently has been in 2025, and we see doubles wins like with Alix Truong in Cape Coral over Augie Ge/Tyra Black in 2 games. If Genie Bouchard starts to push the envelope along with Jack Sock, she has some firepower she can bring with the always rock solid, Jessie Irvine. If Tyson McGuffin can stay healthy and happy with such a diverse group of personalities, he brings a strong foundational baseline of play and energy to the Flames. If Jessie Irvine can stay healthy and happy. If their newly announced former NFL and XFL playing head coach, Brant Weiss, can find a way to bring these 4 players together.

That’s a lot of ‘if’s’ that probably all need to go right for this team to have a fighting chance.

In their current form, the Phoenix Flames are not going to be a fun team for a good chunk of MLP teams to face because the Flames will likely be underdogs on paper but they have the firepower to beat 50% to 75% of the league on the right day. Not to mention this is a pretty strong Dreambreaker team, especially with Jessie Irvine having upped her level from grossly incompetent to somewhat passable in singles over the past 9 months. 

One thing that is a stone cold lock is that the 5’s and the Flames are going to be two of the most interesting teams to watch in MLP to start the season. 

NY Hustlers Trade Juan Benitez to California Black Bears for Stephen Madonia and cash

NY Hustlers Trade Danna Funaro to Bay Area Breakers for Lingwei Kong and cash

It is honestly impressive that the Hustlers are still finding a way to get cash following the draft. We didn’t, and still don’t, know much about either Juan Benitez or Danna Funaro. We’re legitimately curious why Challenger teams are paying cash for these players, especially Funaro as she doesn’t seem to be playing much. Maybe they’re going to be good?

It’s a story for another day what it potentially says for the league that the Hustlers are taking the full blown fire sale approach.

Despite their dire female situation, you have to expect that, if the Hustlers somehow end up finding a good female, they will simply sell right away to the highest bidder. You also have to wonder if they might do the same if either Zane Ford or Donald Young see a big leap in their PPA results as well.

We’ll have to monitor the progression of Funaro and Benitez as they will be guaranteed starters in Challenger for their respective teams with a very limited number of high end reps to their names.

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