The St. Louis Shock made it two event wins in a row, adding a first place finish in St. Petersburg to their first-place finish in their last event in their hometown. St. Louis was dominant all week, winning 21 of 23 games played. They closed the action on Super Sunday with a three-game sweep of the LA Mad Drops. Time to separate fact from fiction with what we learned in St. Petersburg, and we will end with the latest trade rumors.

 

 

St. Louis has long been thought of as the most talented team. The current starting lineup is unchanged from the original free agent draft in 2024. Anna Bright, Kate Fahey, Hayden Patriquin, and Gabe Tardio were a super solid team when drafted, and they are nothing if not even better today in 2026. Bright remains the best woman player not named Waters; Fahey has improved at doubles; Patriquin still appears to be the top challenger to Ben Johns at the top of the mountain; and, Gabe Tardio has cemented his status as the best right side player in the game. They are also very good at Dreambreakers. But, this team did not win it all in 2024 or 2025, falling short each year. For 2026, it has to be championship or bust for St. Louis.

 

The main challenger to St. Louis is New Jersey. Along with St. Louis, New Jersey has also won two MLP events in 2026. Anna Leigh Waters makes New Jersey a co-favorite with St. Louis. Expect St. Louis and New Jersey to grab the top two spots in the regular season standings, and it will surprise no one if they meet in the championship finals.

 

 

 

When Columbus traded for Tyra Black, they solidified their roster, with every starter now a clear top 10 player. But Columbus’ new roster stumbled in their first event together. Columbus opened MLP St. Petersburg with a close win over a decent Orlando squad, then had a closer than expected win over Miami. The surprise came in Columbus’ third match in group play against Palm Beach. Against Palm Beach, Columbus lost a tough women’s doubles game, won men’s doubles easily, but then surprisingly lost both mixed doubles games. The loss by Andrei Daescu and Parris Todd was the one that was the head-scratcher. Tyra Black is coming off an illness, so her losses can be attributed a bit perhaps to her not being at full strength. But Daescu and Todd have played a lot together and should not be losing key matches.

 

Columbus defeated Chicago easily on Sunday to finish a disappointing fifth in St. Petersburg. Columbus is averaging over 15 points per event, and will certainly finish in the top five in the regular season. I expect Columbus to improve as the season goes along and gel better as a team. I do not think they are the team we saw in St. Petersburg. I think they are a dangerous team that is capable of beating anyone come playoff time.

 

 

 

Palm Beach grabbed a surprising fourth place finish in St. Petersburg. Their finish was even more surprising as they had to play without Dekel Bar and then Tyson McGuffin twisted an ankle midway through the event. But even with two substitutes at times, Palm Beach put up a fight every match. They were led by their women’s doubles team of Sofia Sewing and Tina Pisnik, who were undefeated in the event. Sewing and Pisnik beat every team in pool play, and capped it all off with an 11-3 pasting of Brooklyn’s fine team of Rachel Rohrabacher and Jackie Kawamoto on Sunday. Palm Beach did not have the depth to hang with Brooklyn, but Sewing and Pisnik sent a message that they can beat just about anyone.

 

But the reality is that Palm Beach, even at full strength, does not have the top talent to be a threat to win it all. They are a solid playoff team, as we thought at the beginning of the year. They may now be competing to be as high as sixth in the regular season. They could even win a playoff matchup. But to win it all, they would have to defeat three of the top teams, and that is not going to happen. They are a nice story this week, but not a long term one.

 

 

 

With the Tyra Black trade, the top five teams (St. Louis, New Jersey, Columbus, LA, and Brooklyn) now have a monopoly on the 10 women generally considered to be the 10 best women players on the PPA Tour. On the men’s side, of the 10 men on the five teams, nine are generally considered to be among the dozen or so best players now on the PPA Tour. The one exception is Max Freeman, currently ranked #30 in men’s doubles. Not only is he an outlier, he is very much an outlier.

 

Freeman has actually played fairly well in the 2026 MLP events. But to some extent, he was exposed in St. Petersburg. Against St. Louis in the Sunday final, Patriquin and Tardio were able to focus on him. Ben Johns, who has been giving a solid effort in MLP so far this year, looked a bit dispirited on Sunday in the men’s match. Johns does have the habit of not giving full effort when his partner is not up to his high standards.

 

 

Gabe Tardio and Kate Fahey eliminated LA in the first mixed match, defeating Freeman and Catherine Parenteau 11-6 in a game that was not as close as the score might indicate. Freeman is a good player; you do not get to be #30 without being a good player. But, when measured against the top teams, which are made up of all of the very best players, Freeman is a step or two behind.

 

LA does have trade options. They need a right side men’s doubles player, who also is good at mixed doubles and is on a team that is not competing to win in 2026. Federico Staksrud and Dylan Frazier are two names that quickly come to mind. Either would elevate the talent level of LA and thus elevate Johns’ interest in playing hard. Without the trade, LA is capable of winning it all, but would at best be fourth choice. With one of the trades mentioned, LA would jump up to at least be even with Columbus and only a small notch below St. Louis and New Jersey.

 

 

The MLP trade deadline is June 30. There is one more event prior to the deadline, MLP New York. But, nothing that happens in New York would appear likely to change the current outlook on trades, at least for the top teams.

 

St. Louis and Columbus are set. None of their starters are going anywhere. Brooklyn is likely set as well. That leaves New Jersey and LA as the two teams in the top five that could look to make a trade. LA, as discussed, should look to trade Freeman. Rumor has it that they have been offered Dylan Frazier for Freeman and cash. After seeing how LA played in St. Petersburg, LA would be foolish to not do this trade, unless they can get a better player than Frazier. The one real possibility is Federico Staksrud. Staksrud is stuck on an Orlando team going nowhere fast. Staksrud for Freeman and a boatload of cash makes a ton of sense.

 

New Jersey could look to stand pat or trade Noe Khlif. Khlif is a very good player, but he has been a little uncharacteristically shaky the last couple events. There seems to be some dysfunction in men’s doubles next to Will Howells. Howells, playing right side, has taken over more and more of the court, as Khlif has looked tentative. They are certainly capable of beating anyone, as they have shown, but they have also shown they can lose to anyone. A trade of Khlif for a top player would make some sense. The best target is JW Johnson of Dallas. Dallas cannot keep Johnson next year (under current rules), and could use cash to help draft a batter team in 2027. But rumor has it that Dallas is unwilling to trade Johnson to New Jersey, as Dallas is mad that New Jersey stole Jorja Johnson away in the 2026 draft. Of course, Dallas was outbid for Jorja by several teams, so being mad at New Jersey is counterproductive at best.

 

Other possible targets for New Jersey are Staksrud or Eric Oncins. Both would potentially upgrade New Jersey, while Orlando or Texas would benefit from getting to keep Khlif for 2027 and add some cash.

 

One complicating factor for trades of top players is the rumor that MLP will add a franchise player tag for 2027. Such a rule would allow each team to keep a player they would otherwise have to release. Such a tag, if implemented, should be limited to the very best players and would only make sense if combined with a player acquisition cap (or salary cap as it is more commonly known). But even with a cap and tag system, the tag number should be set very high, to discourage its overuse. Players like Johnson or Staksrud or Oncins should not be cap targets; instead, if implemented, it should be limited to players like Waters and Johns.

 

In any event, if we do not see the trades discussed above, and only see lower level teams and players traded before the deadline, blame the franchise tag rumor. These trades should happen, but some owners may be too timid to make the needed moves, instead holding on to players that should be traded for cash that is key to drafting a winning team in 2027.

 

MLP New York is next up, beginning Thursday. Watch it all, as usual, on Pickleballtv.

 

Follow me for the latest MLP news and rumors @pickleball_jim.