The second 2024 Major League Pickleball waiver wire period was held this week, and this is a quick post to react and provide real-time analysis of the moves.
The waiver process and order for this round was announced on MLP’s website here, and this same page was kept up to date with all the moves. The waiver order was done in reverse-standings for each division, using points-per-game as the metric (as I’ve generally been doing in MLP posts this year thanks to the varying number of matches each team has played).
Here’s some thoughts on the moves as they’re announced/completed, along with the updated team composition
Pre waiver Period Trades
- LA Mad Drops have acquired Anderson Scarpa and cash considerations from the Las Vegas Night Owls in exchange for Blaine Hovenier.
LA is back to its original composition: Wilson (IR), Parenteau, Kawamoto, H.Johnson
Las Vegas isn’t done making moves; see below for more.
Analysis: This was a strategic trade for both teams. The Mad Drops, per MLP’s player usage rules, cannot continue to use Hovenier and would have had to waive him this week anyway. So, instead, they called around the Challenger teams to see if they could find a team willing to give them something tangible. That’s why they got “cash” (undisclosed for now) from Las Vegas instead of just the player. The Mad Drops will almost certainly drop Scarpa once the waiver period starts (Updated: they did at about 1230EST on the day 1 waiver period) and re-instate Wilson from the IR. They’ll have a couple months until they play again to allow Wilson to recover, or they’ll make another move at that time.
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Meanwhile, Vegas gets what they perceive as an upgrade from Scarpa to Hovenier. Blaine held his own at MLP SLC but struggled in MLP KC, but even the worst performing premier league MLP player projects as a solid Challenger player.
Scarpa struggled at the mid-season tournament but has a winning record for 2024, and it’ll be interesting to see if another challenger team looks at its worst performing males and takes a waiver-wire flier on him. Taking a look at the current Challenger Player standings, the lowest ranked males still on an active roster include Jack Munro, DJ Young, John Cincola, Yates Johnson, Pat Smith, and Rafa Hewett. Some of these guys have obvious caveats to being dropped at this point related to small sample sizes, potential, or injury, but some could be in play to get waived in favor of Scarpa (who’s ranked 21st out of 48 in challenger this year).
- Atlanta Bouncers have acquired Susannah Barr from the California Black Bears in exchange for Genie Erokhina and cash considerations
Atlanta isn’t done making moves: see below for more.
California isn’t done making moves: see below for more.
Analysis: California used the first waiver pick in the last transaction period to nab Barr, who is currently ranked #2 in APP Women’s Doubles and #1 in APP Mixed Doubles, in a move many thought would greatly enhance the doubles capabilities of the team. It hasn’t really worked out that way; Barr had to miss the mid-season tournament immediately after getting picked, then went 5-9 in her matches in SLC and in KC, ranking her 39th out of 48 challenger players. Nonetheless, Atlanta thinks there’s something there, since they parted ways with Erokhina (ranked 18th out of 48 players) and some cash considerations to acquire her. I sense this is a matchup trade, with both teams looking for a different type of player in that slot. Either that or California is admitting defeat for the season and is trading its top players to better teams for more opportunity (kind of like the NHL does right by its veteran players at the end of losing seasons). One thing that’s curious here in Atlanta’s thinking: Atlanta has six (6!) DreamBreaker losses this year, and Barr makes them a weaker DB team.
- The Las Vegas Night Owls have acquired Rafa Hewett from the California Black Bears in exchange for Mo Alhouni and cash considerations.
Las Vegas viewed Hewett as a veteran left handed upgrade to Alhouni, who was actually ranked slightly higher than Rafa (32nd overall). But when you combine this move with the Hovenier move, Las Vegas has replaced both men on their roster inside of two days. That’s an odd move for the 3rd place team in the division, to shake things up this much. Las Vegas sent cash in both deals as well, so it isn’t as if they’re doing this to net some money. Perhaps they’re banking on the fact that their two females Wang and Castillo, ranked 5th and 9th, will continue to drive the team.
Las Vegas is now: Hewett, Hovenier, Wang, Castillo.
We’ll discuss the impact to California in the Waiver’s section.
Premier Waiver Period
In a not-that-surprising result, not one of the 12 Premier teams made a waiver move. Not even the very bottom teams, which had first overall waiver priority. Why? Well, it isn’t because these teams don’t need improvement, it’s the structure of the waiver process and the talent level of the available players. Waivers can’t pick up challenger players, so a premier team would have to try to replace one of the top 48 players in the world with someone who is likely ranked outside the top 100 in the world. The odds are, if a player is worthy of premier league, they’d at least be on a challenger team right now.
Challenger Waiver Period
Round 1, Pick 1: California drops Mo Alhouni, picks up Christopher Haworth
Analysis: This waiver move was made just after California acquired Alhouni in trade, so we’ll talk about both moves at once. For me, the analysis is straight forward: California was planning on dropping Hewett to pick up Haworth, but before doing so called around the league and found an interested party for Hewett. So they flipped him to Las Vegas to net a little bit of cash instead of dropping him for nothing.
The dropping of Hewett represents a major shift for California. Hewett was their 1st round pick and has underperformed so far in 2024. He sits ranked 37th out of 48 players and is just 10-18 in games won/lost. He’s the sole 1st round pick to be moved at this point.
AHaworth’s singles exploits speak for themselves; in two back to back weeks earlier this summer he won an APP singles pro event and then a PP singles pro event, defeating #5 Frazier, #2 Johns, and #1 Staksrud to take the title. His doubles capabilities are not as renown; he has never won a pro doubles medal. At the PPA KC event this weekend, he and his doubles partner Grayson Goldin didn’t even make it to the final round of qualifying. So, California is taking a gamble here.
California is now: French, Haworth, Erokhina, Hendry. They have just one player who survives from their original draft at this point, as they continue to scramble to try to improve their on the court performance.
Round 1 Pick 2: Florida Smash drops Tammy Emmrich, picks up Christa Gecheva.
You’re only as good as your last event in MLP, and Emmrich struggled in the mid-season Beer City tournament (going 1-5 and being near the bottom of the player rankings) despite being decently ranked overall for the season. That was the last look for the Smash management, and they opted to drop Emmrich to take a flier on Gecheva, who played in both challenger leagues in 2023 but wasn’t picked up for 2024 until now. Florida made another move later, so we’ll summarize their team in a bit.
Round 1 Pick 3: Bay Area Breakers drops DJ Young, picks up Martin Emmrich.
Bay Area is now: Shick, Emmrich, Braverman, Jones.
Young sits near the bottom of the challenger player rankings, and clearly hasn’t come back fully from his wrist injury. When healthy, he’s a near-premier level player. Bay Area continues to remake their team and opts to pair Collin Shick with the lefty Emmrich, who started the season with Brooklyn and who is 14-10 on the season. It seemed like just a matter of time before he got picked back up. I do like this for the team in general; Braverman prefers the left and now can be paired with the lefty Emmrich in mixed, while Jones is a quintessential right-side player who can now play the right with both Shick and Braverman in MLP.
Round 1 Pick 7: Frisco drops Alli Phillips, picks up the just-dropped Tammy Emmrich
This was probably predictable. Yes Emmrich went 1-5 Beer City, but for the season she’s ranked 23rd out of 48 players, well ahead of a slew of other females. But, curiously, Frisco opts to drop Phillips, who is ranked 22nd and just ahead of Emmrich. Only a couple of points across hundreds of points played separate the performance of the two players, so one has to imagine this is being done either for team chemistry reasons, or for future scheduling issues (i.e., Phillips has known conflicts that will have her miss some of the future MLP events).
Frisco is now: Cincola, Auvergne, Radzikowska, Phillips.
Round 2, Pick 2: Florida drops Yates Johnson, picks up Donald Young.
Florida has had an up and down season (thanks in part to their entire team getting sick at the first MLP event) and is hindered from a roster perspective because its owner (Travis Rettenmaier) is also a player and must be rostered. In theory, Rettenmaier is a borderline premier league player, but he’s been pushed to Challenger for 2024, where he’s struggled (Ranked 31st of 48 so far this year). His other male to this point Yates Johnson has been worse, ranked 40th out of 48, and so Florida made a move. They’ve picked up former ATP touring pro Donald Young, who’s had some singles success here and there but less on the doubles side since committing to pickleball. He’s a lefty, which allows for some roster construction flexibility. Travis can now focus on the left hand side in both disciplines, while one of Gecheva or Frantova can also focus entirely on the left side for each event. I’m not sure Florida is improved at the end of this: would you rather have Yates Johnson or Donald Young?
Florida is now: Rettenmaier, Young, Gecheva, Frantova
Round 2 Pick 6: Atlanta drops Angie Walker and picks up Emily (Ackerman) Cederquist.
Walker was ranked slightly ahead of Cederquist in the stats, but has gone just 9-15 in games this season. Cederquist’s games record is slightly better, if her points won percentage is slightly worse. Atlanta manages to flip both if its females inside of 48 hours, going from Erokhina & Walker to Cederquist & Barr. These two new females get to pair with easily the best male pair in the league for the rest of the way.
Atlanta is now: Vich, Fought, Cederquist, Barr
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That’s it for the post-KC waiver moves. There’s still plenty of time for trades before the next MLP event, scheduled for the 9/22/24 weekend on Central Park’s awesome courts in NYC.
