The WPBL Has Groups and Gamers Now

The Ladies’s Professional Baseball League held its inaugural draft on Thursday night time. For most of the gamers who heard their names known as, attending to play skilled baseball is a dream they’ve carried since childhood, one they knew would possibly by no means come true. Play received’t get underway till subsequent August, however with the WPBL draft now within the historical past books, the desires of 120 ladies are meaningfully nearer to being realized.

Thursday night time’s draft was the fruits of a busy few months for the brand new league. Since I final wrote in regards to the WPBL in January, the league has introduced key logistical info, such because the variety of groups that may play throughout its first season, the place these groups will play, and the way a lot the groups can pay the gamers, and has additionally offered an replace on the WPBL’s media and broadcast technique. However regardless of all the brand new intel on how the league will likely be run, a couple of key elements are nonetheless unknown. So earlier than recapping the draft and the open tryout that decided the pool of draft-eligible gamers, let’s rise up to this point on what we do and don’t know in regards to the WPBL to this point.

If that is the primary you’re listening to of the WPBL, right here’s a fast primer. It’s an expert baseball league for girls, the primary of its form for the reason that All-American Ladies Skilled Baseball League (AAGPBL), which ran from 1943 to 1954. The WPBL was co-founded in October of 2024 by Justine Siegal — who’s greatest identified for founding Baseball For All, “[A] women baseball nonprofit that builds gender fairness by creating alternatives for women to play, coach, and lead within the sport” — and Keith Stein, a businessman, lawyer, and member of the possession group for a semiprofessional males’s baseball group in Toronto.

When the league was first introduced, the plan was to area six groups, all based mostly within the Northeast (presumably to attenuate journey bills within the early going), with the intent to develop nationwide because the league grew. However when the WPBL formally introduced the groups for its debut season, the quantity had dropped from six to 4, with cities located on each coasts. New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco will host the league’s first 4 groups, however not till 2027. Through the 2026 season, the league will play all of its video games at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois, about three hours southwest of Chicago. Stein instructed Entrance Workplace Sports activities that although the preliminary groups will likely be located on both coast, they wish to attraction to followers throughout the nation, “Our sport is for everyone,” Stein stated. “It’s for center America, all people. We thought our groups are on these two coasts, it will be good to be in the midst of the nation.”

The stadium, which seats 5,200, is operated by Golden Rule Leisure (GRE) and won’t be shared with some other leagues in the course of the WPBL’s six-week common season plus its playoffs. GRE additionally owns a number of groups within the Prospect League, a wood-bat collegiate summer time league. The corporate is at present looking for a naming rights sponsor for the stadium to fund wanted renovations for the facilitiy. Points with the sphere’s storm drainage, together with “different issues,” compelled the Springfield Fortunate Horseshoes (one in every of GRE’s Prospect League groups) to cancel a number of house video games final season, in addition to the league’s All-Star recreation.

Whereas a majority of the WPBL’s video games will likely be performed in Springfield, the league plans to play a number of barnstorming video games in different cities, together with the longer term houses of its first 4 groups, although these plans have but to be finalized. Every other cities chosen to host barnstorming video games will seemingly be on the league’s quick record for enlargement, as Stein instructed Entrance Workplace Sports activities that the league plans so as to add two further groups in 2027.

For these unable to see the WPBL play in-person, it’s unclear the place precisely its video games will air and whether or not or not followers will want a paid subscription to observe from house, however the league has introduced a partnership with Fremantle, a media manufacturing firm with a résumé spanning actuality TV, recreation exhibits, movie, and documentaries. In response to The Athletic, the WPBL’s cope with Fremantle consists of, “[E]verything from producing and distributing recreation broadcasts to creating authentic content material, securing sponsors, advertising and marketing the league globally and serving to the league signal a nationwide broadcast partnership. The corporate may also develop shoulder programming (comparable to pre- and post-game exhibits, for instance) and documentaries.”

Securing a big-name media firm means that the league hopes to ascertain a excessive normal for its programming, which ought to, in flip, assist appeal to potential followers. Sadly, the draft broadcast, which aired on the league’s YouTube channel and social media feeds, didn’t seize the thrill that comes with getting drafted into a professional league. (It’s unclear whether or not Fremantle was concerned with the manufacturing.) For a league in its first season, providing alternatives that these gamers have by no means had earlier than, it ought to have been straightforward to provide a broadcast that conveyed the stakes of the second. This was one of many league’s first actual possibilities to attach with followers and get them invested within the league the identical means the ladies drafted are clearly invested in taking part in baseball and transferring the ladies’s recreation ahead. As an alternative, they took an occasion that lends itself to a pure barrage of emotional peaks and rolled out one thing fully flat, and a key storytelling alternative was missed.

The draft order was decided by the WPBL’s legislation agency, with the primary choose going to San Francisco, adopted by Los Angeles, New York and at last Boston. Every of the 4 groups made 30 picks utilizing a serpentine format (serpentine is my most popular time period; they known as it a snake draft) for a complete of 120 picks. Not coincidentally, the pool of draft-eligible gamers additionally totaled 120, so any participant who made the pool knew they’d be drafted, which instantly lops off a good chunk of the suspense usually related to a draft. Nevertheless, half of the gamers drafted received’t make their group’s closing roster. Although every group made 30 picks, their rosters solely accommodate 15 gamers, which injects some stress again into the equation, for the reason that deeper a participant fell within the draft, the decrease their odds of constructing the group.

As for the place the 120-player pool got here from, that was decided again in August. The league hosted a four-day open tryout in Washington D.C., the place a contingent of 600 gamers from 10 completely different international locations was regularly whittled right down to 100. Not like the draft course of for MLB, which generally solely consists of gamers from Canada, the U.S. and Puerto Rico, the WPBL forged a world internet when placing collectively its draft pool; the ultimate group of eligible gamers comprised representatives from a dozen international locations all over the world. A number of gamers who couldn’t make the tryout in-person have been admitted based mostly on video submissions and some others have been scouted and recruited by the league, bringing the full to 120. The complete record of draft-eligible prospects was revealed in late September.

So the massive reveal on draft day was much less the who and extra the the place and when. The printed opened with a video montage of footage from the tryouts to heat up the viewers for a night that ought to have been stuffed with constructive power. However somewhat than using that momentum straight into the draft, they minimize to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who monotoned behind useless eyes for nearly a full minute about how baseball is for everybody, a truth exemplified by MLB each on the sphere and in its entrance places of work. As an apart, have you ever ever triggered your self bodily ache since you by accident rolled your eyes too exhausting? I guess Kim Ng has.

Subsequent, viewers have been welcomed in by CJ Silas, ESPN radio host and stadium PA announcer, who hosted the draft and introduced all 120 picks. That technique of asserting the picks took lower than 55 minutes, and as you might have guessed based mostly on that tempo, groups weren’t submitting picks in actual time, as is typical for many drafts. As an alternative, your complete train was accomplished beforehand, making the printed extra of an announcement of draft outcomes than a live-action draft. With out the deliberation time between picks, viewers discovered little or no in regards to the private or baseball backgrounds of the gamers chosen. We have been additional disadvantaged of their in-the-moment reactions to listening to their names known as; as an alternative, we obtained rehearsed statements with the gamers talking straight into their telephone’s selfie digital camera, filmed lengthy after that preliminary response had worn off.

Across the midway mark, the tempo actually picked up. No extra movies have been proven, with images and primary biographical info flashing on the display as Silas powered via the picks at a cadence befitting an auctioneer. On the one hand, I appreciated the effectivity; alternatively, delivering the picks with such breakneck velocity left me questioning if this assembly, er, draft may have been an electronic mail. Which isn’t the power you need from a draft! This isn’t just like the MLB draft, the place gamers are chosen after which disappear into their group’s minor league system for 2 to 5 years (or two months, if the group in query is the Angels). These gamers will likely be taking the sphere subsequent summer time. The time to start out hyping them up is now. But as I wrote this, mere hours after the conclusion of the draft, the one element from a participant’s bio I may keep in mind studying from the printed is that Alli Schroder, the fifth general choose by Boston, additionally fights wildfires. I additionally jotted down that Nadia Diaz has some cool wanting tattoos. However that’s it. That was all I obtained.

However for all my griping in regards to the draft’s presentation, I’ll concede that sure structural elements did create narrative challenges for the league. Notably absent from the league’s varied press releases during the last a number of months has been any announcement of group possession teams. Initially, the WPBL deliberate to go the extra conventional route, with particular person homeowners for every group. However they’ve since pivoted to a single-entity mannequin, the place the league retains possession of all of the groups, as a way of prioritizing parity.

Underneath this mannequin, the draft dynamic is not one in every of particular person groups strategizing towards each other to accumulate essentially the most expertise; it’s a league strategizing to assemble 4 evenly matched groups. With out distinct entrance places of work, the small print on who precisely was making the picks for every membership is a bit murky; the league’s PR director instructed Jen Ramos-Eisen, “There have been 12 coaches concerned within the course of of choosing gamers to the groups together with those that have been on the tryouts. This course of was led by Alex Hugo with the WPBL,” and added that teaching staffs can be introduced in 2026.

Unequalled, the three×3 ladies’s basketball league, additionally operates underneath the single-entity mannequin and so they use the same method for choosing groups. Fairly than conducting a standard draft, Unequalled’s coaches work collectively to assemble the league’s eight rosters. The catch is that they don’t know which roster they’ll be assigned to teach till after the groups are finalized. Then, in lieu of a draft, Unequalled live-streams a roster reveal present. It’s additionally value noting that Unequalled has mastered the artwork of unveiling which gamers will likely be collaborating within the league utilizing a social media guessing recreation that doubles as a way of giving followers a chance to get to know the gamers higher.

Unequalled proves there are nonetheless methods to construct intrigue round roster building and generate hype for the gamers. Which isn’t to say that Unequalled’s techniques would translate completely to the WPBL. They wouldn’t. However with some creativity, the WPBL may have discovered a extra compelling approach to introduce its groups and gamers to the world, versus pretending they have been conducting a standard draft and rattling off a listing of names in fast succession.

On the subject of parity, we must always talk about the final main piece of knowledge introduced by the league in current weeks: participant payroll. Throughout its first season, every WPBL group will function underneath a $95,000 wage cap, which is a mean of round $6,000 per participant, given the 15-player rosters. Over a six-week common season, that’s $1,000 per week. The league additionally intends to cowl residing bills in the course of the season and provides gamers a minimize of any sponsorship earnings, although the precise share hasn’t been disclosed. If we consider the full compensation package deal as a place to begin for a brand new league, it isn’t horrible. It’s nothing the league needs to be bragging about, but it surely may definitely be worse. Simply ask anybody who performed minor league baseball previous to 2022. For now, I’m prepared to order judgement till we see how the payscale evolves for 2027.

However sufficient agonizing over the league’s innerworkings, let’s get a really feel for the composition of the newly drafted participant pool. Because the names and demographic info flew throughout the display in the course of the draft, it was placing what number of gamers hailed from exterior the U.S. The desk beneath has the complete breakdown by nation, with MLB’s corresponding 2025 numbers proven as some extent of reference:

Simply over 50% of WPBL draftees are from the U.S., in comparison with over 73% of MLB gamers. And regardless of a participant pool lower than one-tenth the scale of MLB, the WPBL comes near matching MLB’s whole variety of gamers from Canada, Japan, and South Korea, and exceeds its variety of representatives from Australia, although MLB has much better illustration in the case of the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico. The variations in nationwide illustration are seemingly defined partly by sure social cultural variations. Sure international locations could place kind of significance on ladies’s sports activities relative to the U.S., whereas others could also be extra more likely to encourage women to maintain taking part in baseball as they become older, somewhat than incentivizing a swap to softball, as incessantly occurs stateside.

In the meantime, after Los Angeles used its fourth choose to pick 37-year-old Meggie Meidlinger, a right-handed pitcher from Marietta, Georgia, I used to be curious in regards to the WPBL’s age distribution, notably in comparison with that of a longtime league like MLB. The WPBL truly skews a lot youthful, which might principally be defined by the shortage {of professional} alternatives for girls previous to the founding of the league. Past taking part in for nationwide groups, 37-year-olds like Meidlinger had no cause to remain in taking part in form later into maturity. Because the WPBL persists, I’d count on the typical participant age to tick up year-over-year till the distribution begins to look extra like MLB’s regular distribution:

As for particular person gamers, right here’s a short take a look at every group’s first choice.

San Francisco: Kelsie Whitmore, RHP

A 27-year-old from San Diego, Whitmore has made headlines a number of occasions over time for historic “firsts.” In 2016, Whitmore and Stacy Piagno have been the first ladies to play skilled baseball for the reason that Fifties, when ladies performed in each the Negro Leagues and the AAGPBL. In 2022, Whitmore was the first girl to play within the Atlantic League, suiting up for the Staten Island FerryHawks. And in 2024, she turned the first girl to play within the Pioneer League as a member of the Oakland Ballers. At the moment, Whitmore performs for the Savannah Bananas. After she was chosen with the primary general choose, Whitmore famous that after beginning her skilled profession within the Bay Space with the Sonoma Stompers, she was excited to be heading again to the Bay to play for San Francisco.

Los Angeles: Ayami Sato, RHP

At 35, Sato is already a legend within the ladies’s baseball world. Pitching for Japan’s Nationwide Crew, Sato was named MVP of the Ladies’s Baseball World Cup in three consecutive tournaments and is the one participant to win the award a number of occasions. Within the Japan Ladies’s Baseball League, Sato holds the information for profession full video games, strikeouts, and full video games in a season. In 2024, she signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs (no, not these Maple Leafs) and have become the primary girl to play within the semi-professional Intercounty Baseball League based mostly in Ontario, Canada.

New York: Kylee Lahners, 3B

The primary place participant drafted, the 32-year-old Lahners performed collegiate softball on the College of Washington, the place she earned All-Pac-12 honors all 4 years. At age 25, she made the soar to baseball and joined Crew USA, the place she’s been a key contributor ever since. Through the 2019 COPABE Ladies’s Pan-American Championships she batted .625 over seven video games, logging a seven-RBI recreation towards the Dominican Republic and incomes a match award for many runs produced after racking up 17 RBIs and scoring 15 runs.

Boston: Hyeonah Kim, C

Kim, age 25, joins the WPBL from South Korea, the place she performs for the Korean Nationwide group. She lately competed within the 2025 BFA Ladies’s Baseball Asian Cup, the place over seven video games she slashed .409/.483/.500, scored 9 runs, notched 15 RBIs, went 8-8 in stolen base makes an attempt, and struck out simply as soon as. Speedy catchers who hit for contact are anomalous in males’s baseball, however in a ladies’s league, a profile like Kim’s won’t be fairly so uncommon.

And within the class of Different Gamers Drafted Who You’ve Positively Heard Of, Mo’ne Davis was chosen tenth general by Los Angeles. In 2014, Davis pitched a shutout within the Little League World Collection at age 13, incomes herself a spot on the quilt of Sports activities Illustrated. She continued to play baseball via highschool, after which, like so many ladies who develop up taking part in baseball within the U.S., she finally switched to softball. Davis performed two years of softball at Hampton College, an HBCU in Virginia, however the swap from baseball didn’t take. Softball merely wasn’t her sport. With none viable alternatives to return to baseball, Davis defiantly declared her taking part in days to be over. Till she stumbled on a social media put up in regards to the WPBL, that’s. After six years away, the brand new league allowed the 24-year-old to think about a world the place her taking part in days didn’t should be over.

The WPBL drafted a powerful cohort of ladies in its inaugural draft, and if the league can maintain up its finish of the cut price, possibly Davis will likely be among the many final wave of younger women compelled to preemptively declare their taking part in days are over as a result of they’ll’t see any viable alternatives.