Wednesday is gearing up to be a busy day for Major League Pickleball.

Less than an hour after announcing the first move of Trade Window #2, MLP announced a second trade on social media between the Phoenix Flames and New Jersey 5s.

 

 

 

 

 

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Here are the details:

•          New Jersey acquires Meghan Dizon
•          Phoenix acquires Genie Bouchard and cash considerations
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Here are the updated team rosters after the trade:

•             New Jersey: Anna Leigh Waters, Meghan Dizon, Christa Gecheva, Zane Navratil, Will Howells, Craig Johnson
•             Phoenix: Jack Sock, Tyson McGuffin, Pesa Teoni, Jessie Irvine, Genie Bouchard, Alex Walker

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Breaking things down

Let’s get into how each these moves impact each team’s projected starting lineup.

New Jersey: Anna Leigh Waters, Meghan Dizon, Zane Navratil, Will Howells

After sending Mari Humberg to the Brooklyn Aces (and the Challenger level) with a last-second trade before the Player Keeper Deadline, the 5s shockingly took Bouchard at No. 8 overall in Sunday’s Premier level free agency draft in what was most likely a marketing ploy.

While Bouchard (who went 1-9 in her lone event for the Utah Black Diamonds last season) is massively improved from last year, her play certainly does not warrant her going ahead of other females available at the time like Vivienne David and Callie Smith.

Bouchard’s tenure as a 5 didn’t even last that many days, and now Meghan Dizon will take her place on the roster of the 2024 runners-up.

Having Dizon, who is known for being more of a right-side player, will allow Waters to play the left side in women’s doubles. She wasn’t able to do this as much during the 2024 season, since Humberg is far better on the left than she is on the right.

Dizon has also had past success in MLP, having won the title at MLP San Clemente in 2023 for the Seattle Pioneers (now Carolina Pickleball Club) alongside Ben Johns, Etta Tuionetoa, and Tyler Loong.

For mixed, there’s no reason to split up Howells and Waters after a dominant 2024 campaign. Thus, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Navratil and Dizon take the court together this season.

Navratil had to play the right in mixed with Humberg for reasons outlined above, so I would expect him to be back on the left (at least in mixed) in 2025.

Even though Dizon had a lackluster MLP season with the Columbus Sliders and Orlando Squeeze, she has started this year off on the right foot with women’s doubles semifinal appearances in Tucson and Mesa.

While I don’t understand the logic behind spending $90K to draft Bouchard just to trade her away two days later, I do believe that this move reasserts the 5s as legitimate title contenders.

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Phoenix: Jack Sock, Tyson McGuffin, Jessie Irvine, Genie Bouchard

At least for 2025, the Flames seem to be more interested in making money than actually building a winning roster.

That might sound harsh, but hear me out.

Less than a month ago, they executed a trade with Orlando to bring McGuffin and Dizon to Phoenix.

Here’s what their roster looked like at that point: Andrei Daescu, Tyson McGuffin, Meghan Dizon, and Jessie Irvine.

As I explained in my breakdown of those moves, Daescu and McGuffin are a winning men’s doubles pairing, and both Dizon and Irvine are valuable assets with the lack of depth on the female side.

Furthermore, Daescu and Dizon are both Proton-signed players, and a group headlined by Charles Darling and Tim Fyke of Proton Sports bought a controlling share of the Phoenix franchise in late January. It seemed like the Flames had nearly everything they could have wanted to compete for a title with some of their own sponsored players going into the Player Keeper Deadline.

Since then, though, they’ve traded away both Daescu and Dizon, bringing in Sock and Bouchard (as well as some more money from each of those moves).

Simply put, the team’s prospects are not what they once were.

Sock and McGuffin should be competitive—and a lot of fun to watch—but it’s hard to imagine Bouchard and Irvine winning many matches together.

The same will ring true in mixed, I fear, with half the team being competitive and half the team… not. McGuffin/Irvine will most likely play together and should do alright, but my expectations aren’t nearly as high for Sock and Bouchard.

I’m also not oblivious to the off-court factors at play here. Having Sock and Bouchard—still two of the most recognizable faces in racket sports—on the same team is great for marketing, but it’s hard to imagine this current Flames squad being very competitive in 2025.