RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesNew Jersey's title-winning team (from L-R Emmrich, Khlif, Johnson, Waters, Howells. Not shown: Rane)
MLP/Pickleball.com
As they say, the Internet lives forever. It is always a risk, putting out a Power Ranking of teams for a shop like Major League Pickleball, where more than half the players on the collective team rosters at the end of the season (121) were either traded or were waiver claims this season (if my record keeping is accurate; it may be more). It’s probably folly to do season-long predictions for teams with this amount of churn. But what’s the fun in that?
So, before we get to the playoffs, here’s a quick navel-gazing look at my initial season power rankings versus how they finished up at season’s end. At the end of the draft in early March , I did a big draft recap and published some initial power rankings. For each team there’s a little context provided as the rank versus finish.
New Jersey : Re-Season Power Ranked No. 1, Regular Season Finished No. 1. I thought STL could take them, and picked STL in my Week 9 Pick’em contest , but the amazing Orlando event gave NJ a well-earned regular season title.
St. Louis : Ranked No. 2, finished No.2. The Orlando event final could have gone differently, had Bright/Patriquin won that amazing Mixed match. But it didn’t, so it didn’t. We’ll hopefully get a rematch in NYC in a few week’s time.
Los Angeles : Ranked No. 5, Finished No.3. I had my doubts about Freeman’s ability to allow LA to be better than 5th going into the season, but a late season trade for Garnett and an interested Ben Johns helped power this team up to 3rd by season’s end.
Columbus : Ranked No. 4, Finished No.4: They upgraded their winning roster from last year, and they made the finals in 3 of their 5 events this year, but still could only manage 4th. They’ll have to go through Brooklyn, New Jersey, AND St. Louis to defend their 2025 title. That seems like a long shot.
Brooklyn : Ranked No.3, Finished No.5. I power-ranked Brooklyn 3rd with Frazier, before they flipped him for Alshon, which actually improved their lineup. But injuries killed them: at various points this season they’ve been without Newman (scooter shenanigans), Alshon (birthday parties), and Rohrabacher (scoreboard attacks). Can they get healthy for the quarters and take out Columbus?
Dallas : Ranked No. 6, Finished No. 6. It seems rather prophetic that Dallas somehow ended up 6th this season, after roller coaster ride their roster has been this season. Their women’s roster has gone from Jorga-Tyra-Parker in 2025 to Callie-Tyra-Parker to start 2026, then after multiple trades they now have Townsend-Truong-Buckner and won two of the five events they played. I dare say, they’re the team nobody in the top 4 wants to see in the quarters right now. Underestimate the Flick Wizard at your peril.
Palm Beach : Ranked No.8, finished No.7: The Royals parlayed their expansion roster creation advantage into getting Sofia Sewing pre-draft, paying under-market cash rates for Pisnik and Bar, then getting McGuffin in the draft for just $65k. This solid team, augmented with the waiver wire pickup of Diamond, had this team playing well all season. They were one of just two teams (SoCal the other) that did not execute a trade after the draft was done, and the Goldin/Diamond waiver claim was their only transaction. They finished either 4th or 5th in all five events and will be a tough out for a top four seed in Newport Beach. Not bad for a debut season.
Texas : Ranked No. 7, finished No.8: If you had told me that Texas would have both Alshon and Frazier at some point this season, but then told me that they traded both guys away, I would have guessed they’d be giving up on the season and would be a second division club. Instead they acquired the electric Acevedo, who has paired well with Oncins. They had one bad event (finishing 8th), otherwise they likely would have pipped Palm Beach for 7th.
Just five points separate the next five teams, all of whom won exactly 11 matches this season, just to show how close the playoff race really was.
Atlanta : Ranked No. 11, Finished No 9. Atlanta remade their ladies team on the fly this season, starting with Christian and Walczak, ending with Irvine and Humberg. One big event in San Diego made their season, giving them 15 of their eventual 36 points. Their matchup with Texas in the round of 16 should be the best tie of the opening weekend.
SoCal : Ranked 16, Finished No.10: This team was my biggest “miss” of the power rankings, as I did not have faith that their combination of untested youngsters Campbell and MacKinnon would hold their own. After creating their entire roster from scratch on draft day, they stood pat all season and did not make a single trade or waiver claim; the only of the 20 teams to not make a single move this season. The team outplayed my expectations, making two 3rd place matches, but they also bombed out of two events, finishing 5th in their group. An ill-timed injury to Bhatia made them the obvious first-pick opponent in the round of 16, and they will struggle to advance this weekend.
Las Vegas : Ranked 13th, Finished 11th: I thought Las Vegas would get pipped for the last playoff spot on draft day, having done a bunch of pre-draft trades to break up the team that won Challenger last year. The team more or less played to its capacity this year, did not really have a “bad” event that cost them points, and ended up tied with SoCal with 34 points and 10th place in the standings.
Chicago : Ranked 11th, Finished 12th: Probably the story of the season; Chicago looked like a relatively “safe” veteran playoff team at the time of the draft, but after 3 events looked lost, so the team sold off, went young, picked up super-Sub AJ Koller … then shocked the league by getting into the 3rd place match in their home event week 8 and winning one of the most clutch MLP events in history to eliminate California in Week 9 . They should not be in the playoffs, ...
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