The March 2 Premier Level Free Agency Draft is now in the books. Teams filled out their six person rosters. But of the six, the first four are key, as barring injury, the first four should play all the matches. Going into the auction, 24 starters needed to be picked to fill out all Premier rosters. Some teams needed only one player (such as NJ or DC), while others needed four (NY, Chicago). A total of 24 starters were picked. Let’s go over every pick and analyze how the picks fit into each team.

 

1. St. Louis takes Kate Fahey. Roster is Bright, Fahey, Patriquin and Tardio. St. Louis decides to run back last year. No significantly better option, so solid pick. Grade: A

 

 

 

 

 

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2. Dallas runs it back with Augie Ge. The 2024 champs have JW and Jorja Johnson, Tyra Black and Ge. Same analysis as for STL. Grade: A

 

3. Columbus takes Lea Jansen. Their roster is Daescu, Klinger, Todd, and Jansen. Columbus ends up with two right side women, who can play some left side. The question will be chemistry. Give Columbus credit for actively trying to improve their team in the offseason. Grade: B+

 

4. DC picks Riley Newman. A perfect pick. DC is the only 2024 playoff team which actually improved their roster, which is now Bar, Newman, Rohrabacher, and Jackie Kawamoto. DC is now a legitimate threat to win it all in 2025. Grade: A+

 

5. Chicago gets its first player in James Ignatowich. It is a very difficult task for a team to begin with zero keepers and then grab four good players from those that remain. Give Chicago credit for taking a big swing. Grade: B

 

6. Phoenix takes Jack Sock, giving them a roster of McGuffin, Sock, Dizon, and Irvine. To put it bluntly, this is a pick about marketing, not talent. Sock is not a top 20 doubles player and there were several better options. This team has gone downhill over the offseason. Grade: F

 

7. LA jumps in and takes Quang Duong, for a roster of Hunter Johnson, Duong, Parenteau, and Jade Kawamoto. This is an interesting team. They hung around the playoff race until the very end, despite the key injury to Thomas Wilson. There are some fit issues, but it is also a great Dreambreaker team. They will be an interesting team to watch. Grade: A

 

8. New Jersey fills out its starting lineup with Genie Bouchard. A very odd pick. New Jersey was in the bidding race for pretty much every pick ahead of this, including #1. After Fahey went, who was NJ targeting? Jansen? After Jansen went third, who was NJ targeting? It had to be Bouchard, as no other women were picked after Jansen until this pick. It is a headscratcher. Bouchard is improving, but again she is not a top 20 player. I am not a huge fan of Viv David or Callie Smith in MLP, but they are much better than Bouchard. Or they could pick the right Genie and have taken Genie Erokhina. This pick makes no sense, unless my pre-draft instinct was correct and NJ has a trade already agreed to with a Challenger team to get Wang or Humberg (for Humberg they would have to wait a couple months for the re-acquire rule to pass). Playing Bouchard would cause this championship contender to take a step back, maybe a big step back. I will predict Bouchard is not a starter for NJ all year and maybe won’t even start half the year. Grade: F

 

9-10. Chicago goes back to back with Viv David and Max Freeman, to go with Ignatowich. Again, Chicago is trying their best. David is a solid if unspectacular player, while Freeman is a swing for the fences pick. Grade: B

 

11. Atlanta takes my pick for the 2025 breakthrough woman in Victoria DiMuzio. It may seem a bit early to take DiMuzio, but who else do you pick here? Callie Smith is better known, but she doesn’t give you a championship team unless your other woman is Anna Leigh Waters. DiMuzio has a higher ceiling, although I’m not sure we will see it this MLP season. Grade: B+

 

12. Chicago fills its roster with Callie Smith. Chicago ends up with a so-so team, which is not bad for a squad that started the day with zero players. This is not a top 6 team, but it also is not a complete embarrassment. Grade: B

 

 

 

 

 

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13. Utah fills its roster with Mehvish Safdar, to go with Tyler Loong, Connor Garnett, and Alix Truong. Not many will know Safdar, but she has some talent. Unlike other pros new to pickleball, Safdar actually has doubles game. She can play left side, so she fits with the team. Solid pick where there were not a ton of options. I would have gone Erokhina, but a decent pick. Grade: B+

 

14.  Texas gets the lucky pick of the day with Noe Khlif. They have Khlif, Alshon, Tuionetoa, and Pisnik. Texas tried to bid on every pick up to this point, but they never went high enough to score a pick until now. I’m sure they wanted Newman or Duong. They got incredibly lucky that teams took Ignatowich, Sock, and Freeman before them. Newman was the only man available I would rate clearly ahead of Khlif and even that is close. To get him at #14 is just lucky though, not skill. Grade: A for quality of the pick, but F for the GM’s strategy.

 

15-16. NY gets its first and second players here in Zane Ford and then Donald Young. NY obviously is going with a budget strategy. They pick my male breakout player of 2025 in Zane Ford. They then get the huge potential of Donald Young. Young still plays too much tennis and not enough pickleball on the court. But, he has the hardest serve in the game and one of the best forehand drives. If he ever learns to dink, counter, drop and roll well, watch out. He is already better than the more famous tennis convert Jack Sock, and has more upside. Grade: B+

 

17. Miami goes with a sleeper pick of Mya Bui. Bui is another tennis convert, but her pickleball game, unlike Safdar, is undeveloped. This is a pick made by a GM who has not done their homework. Bui is a Challenger level player, at best. Grade: F

 

18. Orlando takes Samantha Parker, for a roster of Staksrud, Frazier, Schneemann and Parker. This is another bad pick. Orlando went cheap instead of trying for a top female. But, they then got lucky with Erokhina sitting there. Instead, they pick a singles player. Another team that needs a new GM. Grade: D-

 

19. NY takes another undeveloped singles player in Helena Spiridis. Spiridis came over from Australia recently, with Tom Evans. But, her game is not nearly as advanced as Evans. After the draft, an Aussie friend of mine who is a pickleball fanatic asked me if Evans was picked. I said yes and that Spriridis was picked too. His response? “I didn’t know they did the Challenger draft already”. That about sums it up. Spriridis would be a weak Challenger pick; as a Premier starter pick, she is in way over her head. She will be waived or benched early on. Another GM that does not know pickleball. Someone give NY’s owner Kaitlyn Kerr’s number. Grade: F-

 

20. Miami takes Jay Devilliers, for a roster of Devilliers, Oncins, Rane, and Bui. Devilliers is a solid player, and a good teammate. But this team will be awful. Bui will be waived or traded early on. Grade: C+

 

21. New York fills out its roster with Dominique Schaefer for a roster of Ford, Young, Spiridis, and Schaefer. The men picks make some sense for a team not willing to spend much money. But the women picks are really bad. Schaefer is another singles player. Spiridis/Schaefer will be lucky to win a single match all year. NY will almost certainly make moves when they realize their mistakes. Grade: D

 

22. Carolina takes Tammy Emmrich, for a roster of Ben and Collin Johns, Kaitlyn Christian, and Emmrich. Emmrich is a decent player, and Carolina obviously went cheap in this draft. But, why take Ben Johns if you then refuse to surround him with the best talent you can? Collin Johns showed last year he does not want to be in MLP and he is not an MLP-style player. Emmrich is a right side player, but Erokhina is superior. They should have cut Collin, grabbed Khlif and Erokhina, and then they have a solid playoff roster for an extra 75k. Grade: C-

 

23-24. SoCal waits to the end, and spends the minimum for Ivan Jakovljevic and Ryan Fu. They end up with Jokovljevic, Fu, Tereschenko and Castillo. This team was going to be bad, no matter what they did in the draft. So, I don’t blame them for spending the minimum. But the picks? Fu plays PPA doubles with DJ Young and no one who watches them play thinks Fu is the better player. I am higher on Jakovljevic than many, but there were way better options. I would have picked AJ Koller and DJ Young. Neither really had their heart in MLP last year, but I would have gone to them both and got assurance they would put in the effort this year. In talking to players this year, I learned that GMs were by and large not contacting them about the draft. Correct draft strategy involves, among other things, talking to potential draft choices, just as is done in the NFL. Or, how about 2024 super-sub Anderson Scarpa? He is better than Fu or Jakovljevic and proved it in 2024 MLP. Koller/Young would be an average MLP lineup. I would have dropped Tereschenko and Castillo, and picked DiMuzio and Erokhina. My team spending just 100k would be Koller, Young, DiMuzio and Erokhina. I’m not saying it is a great team. It is a team with zero 2024 draft choices on it and costs only 100k. But considering where the players are picked, that is a competitive group. Not a playoff team, but it wins some games and would be capable of beating any of the teams except the very best. Grade: D

 

The 2025 MLP Premier Level Free Agency Draft was fascinating and entertaining as always. It showed teams differentiate themselves in two major ways; how much money they want to spend, and how smart their GMs are. The winners are teams who spend and who are smart (I’m talking about you Dallas, St. Louis, DC), while other teams are cheap and do a poor job of scouting (Yes, you SoCal, NY, and Miami). Before the season, I will be out with my picks for which teams will make the playoffs and the overall champion. Will I pick Dallas again, in a repeat? Hmmm.

 

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