MLP 2026 Draft Preview: Teams' Needs, Top Amateurs Fueling Rosters

There are just 54 players remaining on the 20 MLP teams, meaning that the teams need to acquire a collective 66 players to fill out their rosters for the upcoming 2026 season." That math frames everything heading into the 2026 Major League Pickleball draft presented by Skechers, which begins Friday, February 27 at 10 a.m. ET with live results on MLP’s YouTube and social channels and a draft recap and season preview airing on Pickleball TV Sunday, March 1 at 12 p.m. ET.

MLP will run the draft under the same dynamic-bidding selection process used last year, with no spending cap on bids for draft slots. Alex Lantz of The Kitchen laid out the pick structure: the initial 28 picks fill the first two female and first two male roster slots for teams that didn’t keep at least two of each (16 female and 12 male), and the final 38 picks address open 5th and 6th roster slots (18 female and 20 male), together matching the 66 open positions.

The leaguewide roster clearing has specific consequences. "All 20 teams have dumped their male bench players, while just two teams head into the draft carrying a 3rd/bench female (Brooklyn with Blatt and Last Vegas with Trulock, though with all due respect to Ava Ignatowich, she currently sits as Carolina’s starter but should be a bench player as well)." That concentration of male bench openings means late-phase bench picks will be a big hunting ground for teams and for amateurs edging up from DUPR and regional circuits.

Team-by-team notes sharpen where franchises will spend their bids. Forbes projects Las Vegas will sit out the first phase since it already lists Buckner, Wang, Trulock, Bellamy and Hovenier and "won’t participate in the first phase, as it sits right now with 5 of its 6 roster spots filled. They’ll find a bench male in the second phase, and perhaps will look to flip Trulock to a team in need of a better starter." Forbes also expects LA Mad Drops, with Johns, Freeman, Parenteau and Kawamoto, to "sit pat during the first phase of the draft and fill their bench later on." Miami, carrying Alix Truong and Yuta Funemizu on keepers, "Needs: A left-sided male, a left-sided female," and has been active in cash trades, having moved Jay Devilliers and Mya Bui for cash previously.

Conflicting assessments appear for Brooklyn. Forbes lists Brooklyn as needing a right-sided male, while Nmlpickleball describes Brooklyn as needing a left-side starting male and a starting female. The MLP keeper table snippet also shows Dylan Frazier associated with Brooklyn, underscoring that public keeper fragments are partial and that front-office statements will matter when bidding begins.

Amateurs and semi-pros are central to the draft narrative. The Kitchen named Anna Bright the top available woman, predicting the St. Louis Shock will try to reacquire her but likely face bids from Dallas, Columbus, New Jersey and Texas. The Kitchen and The Dink highlight men like Anderson Scarpa, Will MacKinnon, Wyatt Stone, Zane Ford, Tom Protzek, Martin Emmrich, Greg Dow and Juan Benitez as players "likely to be drafted," while singles specialists listed include Chris Haworth, Donald Young, John Lucian Goins and Rafa Lenhard. Thekitchenpickle flagged Armaan Bhatia at #10 and noted, "He's made it to the Round of 16 in men's doubles in three out of four tournaments this year. But he's another player whose mixed results are suspect."

Financial strategy will steer outcomes. Forbes flagged Bay Area as a possible gambler spending in the $10-20k range on younger talent, and Palm Beach, the league’s only expansion team, used the "Sofia Sewing Rule," traded for Tina Pisnik, and "had the option to sign one non-rostered male for $80,000 and trade for one rostered male, and ended up with Dekel Bar." With "cash is king in Miami" already evident in offseason trades, the dynamic-bidding format and lack of a spending cap mean the 66 open slots will quickly sort teams by willingness to spend and by how well they scout DUPR-ranked amateurs and singles specialists. Post-draft reactions will roll out immediately on The Dink, The Kitchen and PicklePod as full rosters are updated after the slot bidding and selections conclude.