The new rules governing MLP 2025 have been announced. We now know that teams must drop at least one player by mid-February. After that, they need to be ready for the March 2 auction. In the auction, each team must walk away with a roster of six, three men and three women. Prior to the deadline to drop players, teams can trade any eligible players. Now that we know the rules, what is the best strategy for each team?

 

 

 

Let’s start with the 2024 champions, the Dallas Flash. As you would expect for a championship team, they have four strong players, all of whom are players Dallas would love to keep. But, they have to drop one of JW Johnson, Jorja Johnson, Tyra Black, and Augie Ge. The Johnsons aren’t going anywhere, so the choice is Ge or Black. Ge is by far the cheapest to keep at $10,500. Black can be kept for $107,500. Normally, the thought would be to keep Black, as it is usually harder to get a good woman player in the auction. But, if you keep Ge, you have an extra $100k of auction ammunition. It’s not a simple choice, but in the end, I think Dallas keeps Black, drops Ge, and then tries to get him back in the auction.

 

 

The 2024 runners up will keep Anna Leigh Waters, no doubt. The rest is harder to say. Will Howells has a keeper price of only $27,500. It’s a no brainer to keep him, but he is unsigned at this point. If he signs in time, he is kept. If he doesn’t sign in time, he is dropped and NJ keeps Zane Navratil and Mari Humberg. If Howells does sign in time, it is a close issue whether to drop Navratil or Humberg. Navratil’s keeper price is $82,500, while Humberg’s is $49,000. Not a big enough difference to matter. Picking up a replacement for Navratil is probably easier, but his big contribution is leadership and that is harder to find. I think NJ would actually drop Humberg first, but it is all academic if Howells does not sign. If Howells does not sign, NJ will be one of the big losers under the new rules, as there is no player in the auction at Howells’ level, and certainly no one as good at that very cheap keeper price.

 

 

St. Louis, like Dallas, has four solid players and they would like to keep them all. They will keep Anna Bright ($295,000 to keep), Hayden Patriquin ($102,500), and Gabe Tardio ($92,500). They will drop Kate Fahey ($8,500). Fahey has made progress as a player, especially in singles, but still needs improvement in doubles. Bright, Patriquin, and Tardio are all top 10, even top 5 players, so Fahey is the drop. St. Louis can go after Fahey in the auction. She may very well go second in the auction, after Quang Duong.

 

 

Texas is an easy one. They are required to drop Quang Duong. They will keep Christian Alshon, Tina Pisnik, and Etta Wright. Will they bid big to get Duong back? Duong is likely to be the first player picked in the auction and at the highest price.

 

 

DC finished the year with James Ignatowich ($250,000 to keep), Dekel Bar ($76,000), Rachel Rohrabacher ($165,000), and Vivian Glozman (free). DC has a tough choice to make. None of their four players are an obvious drop candidate. So, DC responded by doing a trade. DC traded Glozman to New York for Jackie Kawamoto (and cash). Kawamoto costs $142,500 to keep, so New York sent some cash along to compensate for that cost. But, in getting Kawamoto, DC still faces the same problem, of no obvious drop candidate. Rohrabacher is the only clear choice to keep. An argument can be made to keep/drop any of the other three. Ignatowich is expensive to keep and did not play up to his draft status, but he is still a top 20 player and hard to replace. Kawamoto is solid and not that expensive, and it would make no sense to trade for her and then drop her. I would not drop Bar. He’s not expensive to keep and he is underrated. This trade indicates to me that DC may very well drop Ignatowich. Look for Ignatowich to be dropped and then DC to either pick him back up in the auction, or maybe bid high for a replacement.

 

 

New York had Jack Sock ($275,000 to keep), Jackie Kawamoto ($142,500), Lea Jansen ($77,000), and CJ Klinger ($1,000). But, New York executed two trades, shaking up their roster. They obtained Glozman from DC for Kawamoto, and then sent Klinger to Columbus for Riley Newman. Jansen played well last year, and Sock was the worst player in Premier. But, Sock was not drafted on talent alone; that pick had to be primarily about marketing. Does NY give up on the marketing side after one year? If NY is focused on winning, Sock is dropped; if they keep him over Jansen (or Kawamoto), it is a sign they care mainly about marketing. I’m all about winning, so Sock is dropped. He would be  easy to pick back up in the auction, unless some other team makes a mistake and overbids on him (perhaps one of the Challenger teams moving up).