New Jersey 5s favored as MLP New York trade chaos reshapes lineups

New Jersey’s 5s arrive in New York as the weekend favorite, carrying back-to-back event wins into a bracket that could change fast once the first balls are struck at Sportime Randall’s Island. Major League Pickleball’s June 25-28 stop will run group play through the first three days, then same-seed matches on Day 4, with the top four teams in each group advancing to Super Sunday.

That format puts real pressure on roster decisions, and New York has become the clearest stress test of the trade market. Chicago is expected to roll out a new look if its moves are finalized, the Las Vegas Night Owls have already turned Blaine Hovenier out and brought Clayton Powell in, and the Texas Ranchers will have to cover for Layne Sleeth after her freak injury in Austin left them short-handed. Bay Area’s newly acquired Hovenier is one of the players most likely to change a match on his own, while the Breakers’ fluid mix of Pablo Tellez, Len Yang, Mya Bui, Genie Erokhina and Ella Yeh gives that club several different lineup combinations to sort out on the fly.

Brooklyn is the other major pivot point. The Brooklyn Pickleball Team enters as the No. 6 team in the league at 9-2 with 30 points, and its ownership group, which includes Al Tylis, Sam Porter, Eva Longoria, Justin Verlander, Kate Upton, Rip Hamilton, Shawn Marion, Odell Beckham Jr., Cliff Avril and Mesut Özil, has turned the franchise into one of the league’s most visible brands. With local pressure building at home, Brooklyn has a real shot to win its group, reach Super Sunday for the first time, and turn Randall’s Island into a proof point for the team’s title credentials.

The stakes are bigger than one weekend because MLP’s 2026 season is built around nine regular-season events, with every team playing five and logging 23 Group Play matches total. That makes each roster move more valuable, especially in a league where the calendar and the transactions keep compressing the margin between contender and also-ran. New York City will also host Championship Weekend later in the season, so the weekend serves as both a standings race and a dress rehearsal for the sport’s biggest stage.

The return to Randall’s Island already carries history. New York hosted 12 of 22 teams in 2025, when the Hogs picked up 10 points in five matches and climbed four places in the standings, while Brooklyn’s women helped keep that roster competitive through injury uncertainty. This year, the event adds a Dink Minor League Pickleball Tournament from June 26-28, with the winners earning an automatic bid to Minor League Nationals, another sign that New York has become a major hub for both the pro and amateur sides of the sport.