The 2026 MLP season will begin May 22 in Dallas. The 2026 auction draft is in the books, and a flurry of trades as expected followed the February draft. Teams are still able to make more moves, but at least for now, it appears the rosters have stabilized. The rosters as set now are likely the ones we will see the teams open the season with, so it is a good time to review each team roster, go over their offseason moves, and make some assessments of where each team stands.

 

There are twenty MLP teams for 2026. We will go over them one by one, roughly in order of worst to first, taking into account current roster strength and how well the team maneuvered in the offseason. I will just be listing the four starters, unless one of the subs is likely to play.

 

 

20. Florida Smash: Cason Campbell, Travis Rettenmaier, Zoey Weil, Martina Frantova. Florida did not do much in the offseason and did nothing to improve the team. Weil is their best player, and has some modest potential. Rettenmaier is no longer a viable MLP starter. This team could go all year without winning a match.

 

19. Carolina Hogs: James Delgado, DJ Young, Angie Walker, Allison Phillips. Subs: Brandon French, Ava Ignatowich. This team made a variety of moves, none of which really moved the needle. Delgado and Young are decent players, but the women will be overwhelmed.

 

18. California Black Bears: Michael Loyd, Anouar Braham, Kiora Kunimoto, Sahra Dennehy. Sub: Emma Nelson. This team was handicapped by having little money to spend. They made several moves that netted them some cash. Their women have some potential, but for 2026, will be outgunned. Along with Florida, they have the weakest men; there are undrafted men who are better, so the team has room to improve.

 

17. Miami Pickleball Club: Yuta Funemizu, Nicolas Acevedo, Isabella Dunlap, Estee Widdershoven. Subs: Clayton Powell, Aiko Yoshitomi. Another small budget team, Miami stays at least somewhat competitive by being the best team at identifying new talent. If they were a big budget team, their elite player selection ability would likely result in Miami being one of the very best teams. However, with their small budget, they are relegated toward the bottom of the league, and if one of their longshots hit, they likely will end up trading them for cash.

 

16. Phoenix Flames: Jonathan Truong, Wyatt Stone, Judit Castillo, Daria Walczak. Subs: Cam Chaffin, Alexa Schull. Phoenix always seems to be starting over every year. They take a step back, then make a good move, then make a bad move. If they had consistent management, they could be a middle of the pack team with the money they spend. Truong is a good pickup and Stone is always underrated. But, as is true of so many teams, their women are not good enough to compete for a playoff spot.

 

 

15. Bay Area Breakers: Pablo Tellez, Len Yang, Genie Erokhina, Mya Bui. Subs: Luc Pham, Ella Yeh. This team made a lot of moves and ended up with an OK team. They will beat the bad teams and lose to the better teams, but there is not much upside to this team.

 

14. Las Vegas Night Owls: Blaine Hovenier, Roscoe Bellamy, Zoey Wang, Brooke Buckner. Hovenier will bring his helpful energy to the team and they will be competitive. They just lack any star power and thus will not be competitive with the top teams.

 

13. SoCal Hard Eights: Will MacKinnon, Armaan Bhatia, Meghan Dizon, Cailyn Campbell. SoCal is decent and the potential of MacKinnon and Campbell give them upside. Bhatia is a very good but relatively unknown player and Dizon is solid. This team could be several spots higher by the end of the year and likely will be higher next year, if the roster stays the same.

 

12. Chicago Slice: Zane Navratil, Hunter Johnson, Mari Humberg, Jamie Wei. Subs: Tom Protzek, Jalina Ingram. A decent team across the board, but again they lack a star. The men are not good enough to be competitive with the top teams, but the women will be able to hold their own. Protzek is coming on and likely will be a better doubles player by the end of the year than Navratil or Johnson. Ingram has upside and might fit better on the right with Humberg than Wei does. Would be nice if they could trade for a better male doubles player. Even picking up AJ Koller would improve the team.

 

 

11. Utah: Connor Garnett, Tama Shimabukuro, Allyce Jones, Etta Tuionetoa. Subs: Tyler Loong, Victoria DiMuzio. Utah went for the big upside of Shimabukuro but he does not fit well with Garnett, so a trade may still happen here. Jones and Tuionetoa are a solid pair. DiMuzio can help in a Dreambreaker. Shimabukuro will be a top 10 player, but when will it happen? Utah gets him for three years and at best it is probably in year three. Utah will likely have a season similar to last year; low level playoff team that competes hard.

 

10. Atlanta Bouncers: Jaume Martinez Vich, Jay Devilliers, Jessie Irvine, Kaitlyn Christian. Four solid players, no star, and that equates to a playoff team that cannot win it all. Give Atlanta credit for making moves to improve, but they cannot really get better without spending a lot more, to get a star or two.

 

9. Palm Beach Royals: Dekel Bar, Tyson McGuffin, Tina Pisnik, Sofia Seving. Palm Beach spent a moderate amount of money and ended up with an average team. Once again, it shows that in MLP you generally get what you pay for. Bar and McGuffin are both good but also are declining, albeit slowly. Pisnik is good and versatile but at her age, the question remains about how long she can stay at her current level. Seving is a very good singles player but it is an open question how well she will do against top doubles competition. I think it will all work reasonably well, with Palm Beach ending up in the playoffs but not with any realistic shot at being in the top 3-4 teams.

 

8. Texas Ranchers: Eric Oncins, Dylan Frazier, Lea Jansen, Layne Sleeth. Oncins is vastly improved and Frazier forms a very good men’s doubles team with him. Sleeth has improved, but she is the weak spot. Jansen has now been dropped twice by teams with rumors of team discontent, so we will have to see if there is any problem now in Texas. The men are very good but the women are not good enough to be more than a low playoff team. Watch this team for a possible trade to improve on the women’s side.

 

7. Orlando Squeeze: Federico Staksrud, Jack Sock, Lacy Schneemann, Milan Rane. Orlando is similar to the other teams in this tier. Staksrud is a top player and Sock has gone from vastly overrated to now being underrated. He has finally started to master the little things at the kitchen line that are needed to be a good doubles player. Schneemann and Rane are pretty good, but again not good enough to be a championship team. This team will beat some good teams, but inconsistency will cost them some wins too.

 

6. Dallas Flash: Augie Ge, JW Johnson, Tyra Black, Callie Smith. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Dallas had the worst offseason of any team, and it was all self-inflicted. After making the terrible decision in 2025 to not play Texas in the playoffs, Dallas comes back in 2026 to make an even worse decision by cutting Jorja Johnson instead of JW Johnson. Had they made the right choice, they very likely would have regained JW in the auction draft, as no other big money team needed a male player in the auction. At worst, they would have a team of Ge, Frazier or Sock, Jorja and Tyra, which is a team that could compete for a championship due to the strength of the women. As it is, they drop to a tier where they almost certainly make the playoffs, but with an early exit. Even a trade at this point is difficult, as they need a strictly right side woman, so a trade to Chicago for Humberg would not work.

 

 

5. LA Mad Drops: Ben Johns, Max Freeman, Catherine Parenteau, Jade Kawamoto. Sub: Genie Bouchard. This team will rise of fall on whether they are correct that Max Freeman is ready for prime time. They have their star in Johns and if he stays interested, he is still the best player. Parenteau and Kawamoto were on fire in 2025, but faded some at the end of the 2025 season. If they play well and if Freeman steps up to being a top 15 player, the team is good enough to win it all. I have my doubts about Freeman. I would rather have gone after Frazier in the draft, or Alshon in a trade.

 

4. Brooklyn Pickleball Team: Riley Newman, Christian Alshon, Rachel Rohrabacher, Jackie Kawamoto. Subs: Chris Haworth. Very solid team, as it was in 2025, but they got even better by swapping Bar for Alshon. Very good team all around, although none of their four doubles teams are very top tier. Can they win through depth? One issue is they are not great at Dreambreakers, but Haworth will help.

 

3. Columbus Sliders: Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, Parris Todd, Danni-Elle Townsend. Subs: Alix Truong, Alex Crum. Last year’s champions return three of the four starters, having changed out Lea Jansen for Townsend. Despite rumors of discontent with Jansen as a teammate, it was surprising Columbus dropped her instead of running back the same championship roster. Townsend comes over from Australia, where she showed flashes of talent, but will it translate to championship level play against the best players in the world? Columbus did make a smart move, picking up Alix Truong after the draft. Do not be surprised if Truong ends up starting over Townsend. Truong is good enough to replace Jansen and Townsend lends some upside, so Columbus cannot be counted out to win it all.

 

 

2. St. Louis Shock: Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio, Anna Bright, Kate Fahey. St. Louis returns all four starters, after spending big to retain Bright. St. Louis probably had the best team in 2025, and they are close to the top in 2026. The Patriquin/Tardio combo is the best men’s pairing. To the extent St. Louis has any issues , it is that Fahey is not yet a top 10 doubles player and that they are good but not great at Dreambreakers. Barring injury, St. Louis should end up with an excellent record and be a strong threat to win it all.

 

1. New Jersey 5’s: Will Howells, Noe Khlif, Anna Leigh Waters, Jorja Johnson. New Jersey, along with St. Louis, are the big spenders of MLP and thus New Jersey and St. Louis end up with the two best teams. Johnson is a perfect fit, as her right side strengths meld well with Waters in women’s doubles and she will be a strong partner for Khlif in mixed doubles. All four of New Jersey’s doubles teams are very good (or better) and their Dreambreaker team is very good as well. New Jersey and St. Louis are so good that, barring injury, the champion is highly likely to be one of those two teams.

 

MLP 2026 will start up in May, and goes through the championship in New York at the end of August. A St. Louis v New Jersey final looks likely, but injuries, trades, and other unexpected things can come up to throw us off the expected path. It will all play out on Pickleballtv.

 

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