After months of an off-season for Major League Pickleball , which included an overhaul of the competition rules for 2025, an ownership change , a franchise relocation , dozens of trades , and then dozens of players getting dropped to waivers , we are finally to the 2025 MLP Player Draft.

Ahead of this draft, I posted some analysis and some high-level predictions for who teams may be targeting, but really nobody had any idea how the Premier league draft will go. This post is a running diary of the March 2nd draft, with at-the-time reactions to the players selected. Media members were invited to join the Draft proceedings to offer live reactions and blogging, and I’ll type along with the picks as they occur with timestamps.

- There’s no salary cap in play, so teams can stack themselves by outspending their rivals.

- Teams must maintain 2 men/2 women structure in their “starting 4” roster, and must maintain 3 men/3 women in their overall rosters. There’s no over-loading with Men or Women looking for trades later on.

- Returning Premier teams collectively have 15 open slots on their teams (one each for 11 of the teams, and then four open slots for the Hustlers), while the promoted Challenger teams collectively have 9 slots to fill (four for Chicago alone).

- All 16 Premier league teams have to fill their 4-man starting rotation before bench players can start to get picked up, which means we’re likely to see a run on players in the $10,000 range (the minimum bid) in the 20-24 range of the draft.

- So, this means that we’ll see 24 players picked to populate the starting rosters, then we’ll see the bench players start to get picked up. It will be interesting to see the strategies used for bench players, and to see the effort put into scouting for these teams, since the benches will be littered with players who aren’t exactly household names.

MLP published the results of the draft here , albeit without the dollar figures.

This draft occurred on Sunday 3/2/25.

Noon EST : The Draft kicks off with little fanfare for us media folks. Teams are getting 2 minutes to bid. The first draft slot bidding started out at $70k, which was quickly bid up, with the three main big-money teams (NJ, Stl, Dallas) all bidding up the price. New Bids would extend the time slightly, which makes sense since you don’t want someone bidding with one second remaining and winning by virtue of being the best and clicking.

12:05 : St. Louis wins the slot for $130k, immediately picks Kate Fahey . Ok, so much for the thought process that perhaps Anna Bright had something up her sleeve with a relative unknown. They choose to run back 2024’s team intact.

12;09 : Utah surprisingly got in on the bidding for the #2 overall spot, but were outbid in the end by Dallas, who got the #2 slot for $100k. They immediately take Augustus “Auggie” Ge , so they’re doing the same thing St. Louis is: picking back up the player they just had to drop and opting to run back the 2024 team as is.

12:15: The third of the big three teams (New Jersey) quickly jumped on the bidding for the third overall pick, quickly getting it to the same $100k level that the #2 pick went. Columbus put in a last second bid to snatch it away at $110k, to surprise most of us. Columbus, who needs a solid Female player from a shallow draft pool, grabbed Lea Jansen , who many of us thought would be a natural fit to New Jersey. Interesting development.

12:20 : the new bidding kicked off with Texas, who may be looking to pick back up Duong here, and then we got a surprise first bid from the Chicago Slice. New Jersey looked to have the spot locked up before a last minute $110k bid from DC reset the clock, which won them the pick. It looks like perhaps NJ won’t go over $100k, having lost out on three straight slots at the very end. With the pick, DC grabs Riley Newman to pair him with Dekel Bar. Newman was the headliner for the DC team in 2023, and now he returns home.

12:22: Texas is back bidding again, joined by the LA Mad Drops, who need a solid male to replace Thomas Wilson’s exploits. But with time running out, it’s a shocker: the Chicago Slice win the slot. They need to build an entire roster, and there were questions as to their willingness to spend. With the pick won for $90k, they take James Ignatowich to anchor their rise into Premier. Not a bad pick, getting a former 1st rounder for $90k.

12:25 : Utah on the board with a bid, to the surprise of many given their lack of spending last year. But its Phoenix who grabs the spot for $100k, looking to rebuild their team that they decimated at the trade deadline. They go for the PR big name Jack Sock, who they’ll pair with Tyson McGuffin for an all-trash talking/all-social media team.

12:27 : New Jersey still in the mix, with its choices for a 2nd-banana female dwindling. They’ve been involved in nearly every round, and once again lose out, this time to the LA Mad Drops for $80k. In a shocker, they take Quang Duong away from Texas to make a new look 2025 for the team. He’ll take on some left-side burden here, pairing with singles specialist Hunter Johnson.

12:30 : Utah back in the bidding mix for the #8 overall pick here, and with just a few seconds left they were in a winning position. To this point, we have not seen New York involved in the bidding much at all, despite needing an entire roster and having hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash to do so. NJ stole the pick at the very end, grabbing it for $90k. With it, they paired ALW for the season with an interesting pick in Genie Bouchard , who has been playing the left on tour and who is rapidly improving in singles, but who is more known for her Instagram following than her pickleball talents. Of course, the conventional wisdom is that Waters can carry dozens of ladies to victory, but they seem to be taking a step backwards in talent from last year. We got some rumblings that perhaps this was a pre-arranged pick by NJ to fulfil a future trade, so perhaps Bouchard is not long for the 5’s here.

12:33 : Chicago was set to win the slot before Atlanta popped up, sending off a last second bidding war between the two rising challenger teams for this slot. Chicago ends up winning it for $80k, enabling them to take their second player. They go with Vivienne David and now have two very solid Premier players to kick start their roster.

12:37 : Texas needs a player, having lost out on their 2024 star Duong. They’re very active in the bidding for the 10th spot, but Chicago and NY are involved as well. Chicago continues to be aggressive though, and wins the #10 pick as well for back-to-back wins. For their $80k they snag Max Freeman , one of the recent UPA signings and a real rising star on tour.

12:39 : Ten picks in, still nothing from New York, who have zero rostered players to this point. Utah keeps bidding, but seemingly won’t go above a certain threshold for now. Orlando needs a female and puts in some bids. But its Atlanta and their Budweiser money that grabs the #11 pick for $70k, and they grab the DUPR starlet Victoria Di Muzio in a move that many pundits like.

12:43 : We’re getting down to the meat of this draft, where nearly all the teams who just had to fill one slot have done so, and the worries that some pundits had about teams punting on the rosters are starting to come true to an extent. Still zero picks for NY (who need four players), and as far as I can tell, not even a single bid from Miami or SoCal, two of the rising teams. Chicago remains amazingly active though, and grabs the #12 spot for $70k. With that spot, they draft the last remaining waived premier female Callie Smith and complete their four-man starting roster, before fellow player-less NY has even drafted one. And, honestly, Chicago’s team looks great: Ignatowich, Freeman, Smith, and David. I’d take that team, and I’ll bet right now they finish ahead of some of the returning Premier teams.

12:45 : Utah finally looks like it’ll win a slot, holding the winning bid through most of the round, then grabbing #13 for $50k. They lost their waiver pick Bouchard earlier, so they dug deeper for their 2nd female and went with Mehvish Safdar , who was signed to a UPA deal two days ago. The first real unknown picked in today’s draft.

12:49 : Texas finally nabs the slot, grabbing it for $50k and immediately drafting the underrated Noe Khlif . This is a solid pick for a player who really impressed last season and who is improving fast on tour.

12:51 : with 11 of the 16 teams now with completed rosters, it’s time for some of the stragglers to start winning bids. New York comes in with the winning $30k bid for the #15 overall pick, finally getting a chance to draft a player. This team netted $600k in trade acquisitions and didn’t spend a dime in player retention, yet sat out all the big money early rounds here, probably to the chagrin of the rest of the league. Curiously, the Hustlers delay getting their pick in and the league paused the Draft to scroll through the available players to find NY’s pick. They start their 2025 roster creation with Zane Ford , a reasonable pick of a rising talent.

12:58 : Orlando still needs a fourth player and have let all the top females go, and were in position to win the pick but they lost it to Miami for $20k. Miami then picks Mya Bui , who was literally signed to a UPA contract today. One has to wonder … the timing seems suspicious, especially since the rules we were communicated back in February implied that there was a hard deadline for signing players to make them eligible for this draft. Nonetheless, Miami is on the board with a name new to most pickleball fans.

1:02 : Orlando is finally on the board, getting its 4th spot for $30k. They go with Samantha Parker to fill out their starting roster.

1:04 : Do you know who we haven’t heard from yet? Carolina, who failed to spend their full allotment last year and who has barely even participated in the bidding to this point. They need a second female, and whoever they get now will be a deep-cut from the UPA’s roster. Carolina puts in an early bid for the #19 spot, but they’re quickly outbid by the Hustlers, who need two females off the dwindling talent pool. NY wins the bid for $20k, then grabs little-known Helene Spiridis as their first female.

1:06 : We’re getting down to the very end of this draft section, and are starting to see introductory bids from the likes of Carolina and SoCal. There’s a minimum bid of $10k, and the increments are $10k, so we’re clearly seeing a ton of teams trying to get these slots for as little cash outlay as possible. Miami goes to $30k for the #20 slot and wins it to fill out their roster and they grab Jay Devilliers . probably the BPA at this point.

1:08 : SoCal needs two, Carolina needs one, and NY Needs one. That’s who’s left bidding at this point, and it seems like a game of “chicken” to see who goes above the minimum bids at this point. NY commits to $20k and wins the #21 overall pick; they go with Dominique Schaefer , not a bad selection at this point in the draft, to get an accomplished singles player with some upside in doubles.

1:10 : Carolina “wins” the #22 overall pick by virtue of submitting the minimum $10k bid, as its clear both Carolina and SoCal will spend the absolute minimum at this point. Not a great look for billionaire-owner Dundon, who could finance today’s outlays with the daily profits of his existing pickleball holdings rather easily. Carolina selects Tammy Emmrich with the pick.

1:13 : So the last two compulsory picks fall to SoCal, who gets both for the minimum $10k. They need two males, and are able to grab Ivan Jakovljevic and Ryan Fu . With all due respect to SoCal and their team, if they don’t finish 16th out of 16 this season it’ll be a massive upset.

That’s the end of the first “grouping” of draft picks. At this point, all 16 teams have their “starting” rosters set. Now the teams will start a bidding process for picks 25-56, to populate their bench spots. We’ll get 32 players picked here.

Heading into this tranche of players, there’s still some interesting names available. Bellamy and Koller were on premier teams to end last season, Wilson could be an interesting bench stash in case he returns, and there’s a slew of players waived from challenger teams who were big contributors last year (Martin Emmrich, Hovenier, French, Loyd, Lange, and Gecheva). It will be interesting to see if these players take up bench spots, or if they’re left available for Challenger main-roster spots in lieu of picking more up-and-coming talents.

We’ll dip our heads in and out of the rest of the draft, sometimes just listing who was picked and identifying some notable picks.

1:22: the draft picked back up; the minimum bid has now dropped to $1000, and the bidding rises in $100 increments (as opposed to the first part of the draft, which was $10k min and $10k increments). So the first few rounds saw a ton of bidders willing to spend a few hundred more each time.

1:35 : the first “bench” pick takes longer to bid than many of the top 24 picks, to the chagrin of those following along. A number of teams keep resetting the bid clock with last-second bids with the $100 increment, which has made this process drag along a bit, After an exceedingly long process, St. Louis won the 25th pick and grabbed Felicity Di Laura .

1:39 : They make a quick fix to the bid increments, changing it from $100 to $500, which hopefully will speed up the auction process. DC keeps coming in at the last second and putting in competing bids, which then adds an additional 30 seconds each time, much to the irritation of some GMs involved. Texas wins the 26th pick for $10k and grabs Michael Loyd , a solid pick here.

1:45 : Texas wins the 27th pick, picks Helena Jansen , a completely solid pick, to finish off their bench three picks into the draft and thus free up the rest of their Sunday afternoon.

1:51 : Erik Lange is picked by St. Louis for $10k, a nice pickup for this team, who finishes off their bench spots as well. Lange got out of his existing Challenger team contract a few days ago, and at the age of 43 is a little long in the tooth to compete against the youth invasion, so this could be seen as a sage elder teammate to the St Louis squad.

Four picks in, and all four have gone to Texas & St Louis.

1:53 : in the fastest pick of the round, DC grabs Hannah Blatt . Then SoCal surprisingly gets in on the action, grabbing Blaine Hovenier with the 30th pick for the same $10k figure they spent on their main roster picks. Hovenier may very well push their first two male picks for playing time, based on his past MLP experience.

2:03 : Roscoe Bellamy is picked up by Columbus, who had him on waivers to end the 2024 season, offering a nice reunion of player and team. I think this could be a solid pick.

2:09 : New York surprisingly finishes off its bench quickly, picking up a couple of unfamiliar names Juan Benitez and Danna Funaro .

2:10 : unsurprisingly based on the first round of bidding, we’re seeing practically zero bidding participation from a slew of the teams, who probably are looking to spend the bare minimum of $1000 per player at this juncture.

2:11 : the Orlando Squeeze grab Tom Evans , the Australian sensation that’s recently moved to the US and has been getting major wins. I don’t think he’s playing over Orlando’s Staksrud & Frazier, but the new waiver poaching rules could see someone like Evans getting plucked sometime this year.

2:14 : Sam Querrey is back! After missing a year with a blown Achilles Heel, he gets picked up by Atlanta. If you’re not listening to his “Nothing Major” podcast, you’re missing out.

2:15: There’s still a handful of males with 2024 MLP experience available: Koller, Wilson, French, and Emmrich. Every available female who was waived in the drop period is now gone, though a few players with 2024 MLP experience remiain.

2:17 : Utah secures a reunion with their 2024 teammate Genie Erokhina for just $4500 with pick #38.

2:21 : Veteran Pat Smith , who played with DC for a bit last year, returns to the team in a bench role, going for $4k with pick number 40. We’re halfway through the bench players.

2:30 : In the best move I’ve seen in this latter bench round, LA Mad Drops pick up their former 1st rounder Thomas Wilson . Bravo to the teams for making this happen; if he comes back, it’s only fair that he gets to do it with his 2024 drafting team.

2:40 : We’re to the point of the draft where players can be had for the minimum bid, so it’s only fitting that Carolina grabs the #52 pick for $1000 and picks Liz Trulock . Actually, for my criticisms of Carolina’s approach this is a solid pick so late in the game.

2:44 : SoCal, which netted the last two picks in the “main roster” round for minimum bids, also did the same with one of their two bench spots, picking at #55. They finish off their roster with Lauren Hidalgo-Smith .

2:45: With the final pick, Mr. Irrelevant goes to Chicago in the form of Carlos Di Laura , secured for $1000.

We’ll post later in the week some draft reactions and hand out some team grades and 2025 snap-predictions. Tomorrow will be the Challenger draft, and we’ll recap it on Tuesday morning.