The 2026 MLP Draft is now in the books. The 20 teams selected a total of 28 starters and 38 substitutes to fill out their six-person (three men, three women) rosters.

 

Let’s go over all 28 starter picks with draft grades, summarize the highlights on the subs picked, and then name our big winners of the draft.

 

1. Anna Bright, STL, $1.23m. Wow, a shocker right off the bat. We all knew Bright would be the first pick, but that price tag! It is even more expensive knowing that the bid price this year is next year’s keeper price. The bidding for the first pick started slow, but turned into a three-way race between COL, NJ, and STL around the 500k mark. But it did not end there, as both NJ and STL kept the pedal to the metal. They both bid up to and through the $1m mark. NJ finally conceded, knowing that they probably could get the #2 pick cheaper and be about as good as if they took Bright. GRADE: A (On talent, but the price? Ouch)

2. Jorja Johnson, NJ, 800k. As expected, DAL tried to get Jorja back, but could not stomach the deep pockets of NJ. DAL tried hard, bidding up to 755k, but as NJ had shown a willingness to go to $1m, Dallas lost heart when NJ jumped to 800k. The mistake of the draft was DAL dropping Jorja; they miscalculated who NJ would drop, and that error likely has cost DAL any shot at a 2026 championship (barring a trade). GRADE: Same as Bright

3. Danni-Elle Townsend, COL, 180k. The Aussie was predicted to go high, although not this high. She has shown talent in MLP Asia and Australia events, but more talent than veterans like Lea Jansen and Meghan Dizon? We shall see. This would be a pick where it is more about 2027 and 2028, but COL is a win now team. I would have kept Jansen rather than take a chance, but we will see. GRADE: Incomplete/B-

4. Lea Jansen, TEX, 105k. TEX has two top men in Alshon and Oncins, but was desperate for top women to round out the team. Jansen’s talent outweighed any concern about possible personality issues. GRADE: B+

5. Ting Chieh Wei, CHI, 75k. An improving player, although I think Mari Humberg and Dizon are both better now. GRADE: C

6. Mari Humberg, CHI, 90k. CHI pays more for the 6th pick than the 5th pick and gets a better player, so it all makes some sense in the end. Humberg has to play left and I’m not sure about Wei on the right, as she can be inconsistent. An interesting power pairing. GRADE: B

7. Dylan Frazier, BKN, 170k. Completely logical pick, including that he went for more money than the prior couple of picks. This was a bidding war between PB, ORL, DAL, and BKN. DAL was the only one looking to draft a woman, so logically they dropped out of the bidding for this pick. GRADE: A-

8. Jack Sock, ORL, 105k. Bidding was between ORL and PB. Not sure why DAL would not take a shot, as they had bid 90k for the prior pick. Sock has gone from a hugely expensive bust to a reasonably priced player with upside. I like this pick a lot. ORL is not going to win a championship, but they will be very competitive and fun to watch. On any given day, they can beat anyone. GRADE: A-

9. Tama Shimabukuro, UTAH, 125k. I expected Utah to take a shot at Sock, so paying more for Tama is surprising. Tama has enormous upside, but at 14 years old, I am just not sure that full upside will appear in the next 3 years. He may well turn out to be a top
10 player, but not until after Utah's rights expire. A veteran here made more sense to me, but they grabbed Loong late, so that pairs well. GRADE: Incomplete/B-

10. Jonathan Truong, PHX, 85k. I like this pick. Upside, youth, plus current talent. Taking men who are 17-20 years old makes more sense to me than taking 14-15 year olds as the older teenagers are more likely to be getting to their ceiling soon and certainly within the 3-year keeper window. GRADE: B+

 

 

 

 

 

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11. Meghan Dizon, SoCal, 85k. Bidding war the last couple of picks between PHX and SoCal. DAL bid little or none for picks 8-11, which made zero sense. DAL should have been after Dizon, who has played solidly lately and who would fit well next to Tyra Black. SoCal did a good job throughout this draft. GRADE: A-

12. Tyson McGuffin, PB, 65k. Almost a forgotten man in this draft, Tyson finally goes to Palm Beach and is a perfect fit. Palm Beach is not winning any championships, but they have built a middle of the pack team without spending crazy. GRADE: A

13. Cailyn Campbell, SoCal, 65k. SoCal goes for youth and potential. Campbell has shown some flashes, but not much for PPA results. For SoCal, potential makes more sense than picking a better veteran like Callie Smith. GRADE: B-

14. Armaan Bhatia, SoCal, 40k. One of my favorite picks of the whole draft. Good player, improving, and a really good person who will be a good teammate. Even got him at a bargain price. GRADE: A

15. Kiora Kunimoto, CAL, 45k. I thought Kunimoto would go higher due to her recent success at PPA singles. She makes some sense here for a team not trying to maximize wins, but instead build something. Her doubles game needs work. GRADE: B

16. Cam Chaffin, PHX, 35k. Taking a flier on potential. Chaffin has shown singles talent, but not yet a developed doubles game. Again, probably too young to develop great value within the 3-year keeper limit. GRADE: C

17. Will MacKinnon, SoCal, 40k. MacKinnon has a ton of talent, but has not dealt well with the PPA pressure. Way too inconsistent. But his ceiling is sky high, and at 17 he is much more likely to get toward that ceiling in the next 3 years than are younger players who were taken ahead of him. SoCal is another team looking to build rather than win now, so the pick makes perfect sense. GRADE: Incomplete/B+

18. Len Yang, Bay Area, 35k. Yang is from China and is a table tennis convert. This pick is all about guessing his upside. At this point in the draft, we all noted that solid but unspectacular veterans were dropping like a rock, including players like AJ Koller and Tyler Loong. The reason is that many of these teams are not interested in going 12-12; they would rather go 7-17, but maybe develop talent for future years. Yang is that type of player. GRADE: Incomplete/C+

19. Callie Smith, DAL, 50k. Apparently, Dallas’s phone connection to the draft disconnected for awhile, but they came back in time to get the last logical woman to pick. Expect DAL to desperately try to make a trade to upgrade this spot. Smith is a perfectly fine player, but is not good enough for DAL to compete for a championship. GRADE: C+

20. Daria Walczak, ATL, 45k. Others are higher on Walczak than I am. She’s ok, but not special. She does not have the upside of the younger players, and also is not currently as good as some of the veteran players. GRADE: C

 

 

 

 

 

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21. Judit Castillo, PHX, 45k. Similar to Walczak, although Castillo has shown some signs of improving at doubles, so there is some upside here. GRADE: B

22. Sahra Dennehy; TEX, 35k. Another Aussie, so potential. Could be a trade candidate, with TEX looking for more current production. GRADE: B

23. Genie Bouchard, FLA, 20k. A head scratcher. Maybe a trade candidate? GRADE: D

24. Chris Haworth, CAL, 30k. The best singles player in the world, but his doubles game is not there yet. A pick like Loong or Koller is much better to win now. This pick was about potential or trade value to a team wanting a singles specialist. GRADE: C

25. Nico Acevedo, MIA, 10k. Hmm, under the radar pick, but if there is one GM I will give the benefit of the doubt to, it is Johnny Goldberg. He has shown he can find talent that others cannot. I have to wait and see on this one. GRADE: Incomplete

 

 

 

 

 

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26. Ella Yeh, BA, 10k. Hard to find young women players with high upside at this point. Bay Area takes a swing. GRADE: incomplete/C

27. Estee Widdershoven, Miami, 10k. GRADE: Same as Yeh.

28. Anouar Braham, CAL, 10k. Originally from Tunisia, Braham is new to the PPA scene. A little older at 24 to be drafted as a pure prospect, so we will see if he can develop. GRADE: incomplete/C

 

 

Once the starters were all picked, 38 more players had to be picked, so that every team has six total players, three women and three men. STL came out firing, grabbing the first two picks. STL drafted John Lucian Goins and Elsie Hendershot. Goins is a solid singles player and developing at doubles; Hendershot will be a top 10 player some day, but at just 12 years old it is tough to expect her to do much in the next three years. The teams then appeared to focus on youth and potential. In general, solid veterans who are not viewed as having a lot of upside dropped a lot. For example, AJ Koller went undrafted, while Tyler Loong lasted until the 59th pick (to Utah).

 

Expect a fair number of trades coming soon. The trade window opens Monday. I expect some of the richer teams will be active, trying to spend cash to improve their bench. For example, Chris Haworth looks like a trade target for a good team who needs to add a great singles player for Dreambreakers. The big question will be whether Dallas can do something to improve that second female spot, or whether they will accept being a second tier team.

 

The winner of this draft was clearly and undeniably New Jersey. They are the one top six team that definitively improved, substituting Jorja Johnson in for Meghan Dizon. Full credit has to go to Ryan Harwood for his management of the team. He correctly dropped Dizon and Humberg to create an opening for a woman in case a team made a mistake and dropped a top woman. Most GMs would have kept Dizon, a good player at a decent price. Harwood correctly figured he could, at worst, get Dizon back. But fortune favored the bold and Dallas made a terrible error by dropping Jorja Johnson instead of JW Johnson. Had Dallas dropped JW, they would have been competing to get him back against financially weaker teams, with Dylan Frazier as a solid fallback. Instead, Dallas got outspent by NJ and STL, and is now left with a roster that does not look like a realistic team to compete for a championship.

 

 

St. Louis did what it needed to do to get Bright back. It was costly in monetary terms. But on the court, STL and NJ look like the clear tier one teams by themselves.

 

Columbus bid aggressively, settling for Danni-Elle Townsend. Much will depend on whether they are right that Townsend is ready for the big time. If so, this team will be a solid third choice to win it all. Brooklyn did well in drafting, but I am betting this is a team to watch for a trade. Also watch Texas. Texas has two great men, but their women are not strong enough to compete. Look for teams to try to pry Alshon and/or Oncins away from Texas, perhaps with money as the sweetener.

 

Next up will be our team by team evaluations once the trades shake out. The first MLP match is May 22. Keep up with all the MLP news at Pickleball.com and on Pickleballtv.

 

Follow me for updates on X @pickleball_jim.