Bay Area Breakers and California Black Bears swap five players before Grand Rapids

The Bay Area Breakers and California Black Bears made the latest move in Major League Pickleball’s second trade window, with Bay Area landing Kiora Kunimoto and James Delgado for Mya Bui, Pablo Tellez and cash considerations. The deal, completed July 7, gives Bay Area more singles depth and a younger core as the club said it was building toward 2027.

That matters because the window is closing fast before the Mid-Season Tournament in Grand Rapids, where every point has playoff weight. MLP’s event runs July 8-12 at Belknap Park alongside the Beer City Open, with double-elimination brackets, prize money and bonus standings points on the line. Seeding is based on points per match, with match-win percentage as the tiebreaker, so roster fit is not a luxury anymore. It is the difference between a favorable draw and a brutal path.

The Breakers-Black Bears swap was not the only roster reshuffle. On June 24, Chicago, St. Louis, Texas and Atlanta were part of a four-team trade that sent Elsie Hendershot to Chicago, Angie Walker and cash to St. Louis, Kaitlyn Christian and cash to Texas, and Mari Humberg to Atlanta. Transaction trackers called it the first four-team trade in MLP history, and another Chicago-St. Louis deal that day moved John Lucian Goins to Chicago while Hunter Johnson and cash went to St. Louis.

The week before that, Bay Area, Las Vegas and Miami completed a three-team trade that sent Blaine Hovenier to Bay Area, Clayton Powell to Las Vegas and Luc Pham to Miami. Dallas also added Alix Truong in a June 22 trade with Phoenix. The pace tells you what teams are chasing now: not just talent, but cleaner gender-doubles combinations, more reliable right-side and left-side options, and enough DreamBreaker flexibility to steal a match when the margins tighten.

Grand Rapids will be the biggest proving ground for those decisions. All 20 MLP franchises are in the field, joined by Team Australia, Team Canada, Team Europe and College All-Stars for a 24-team event. The tournament also includes the first Paddletek One Point Challenge, a 128-team amateur doubles bracket with 256 players and a $25,000 purse, which gives local players a direct window into the pressure-packed format the pros are leaning into.

The standings make the urgency obvious. New Jersey 5s were leading the league with 87 total event points, and St. Louis Shock were right behind at 82. In a season this tight, one trade can change more than a roster card. It can change which teams are the target in Grand Rapids, and which ones everybody else would rather avoid.