Pre-Season Power Rankings In Major League Pickleball And Their Relation To Team Payroll

BusinessSportsMoneyPre-Season Power Rankings In Major League Pickleball And Their Relation To Team PayrollByTodd Boss,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Todd Boss writes about Pickleball, the fastest growing sport in USAFollow AuthorMay 15, 2026, 10:31am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.St. Louis paid well to reunite Kate Fahey (L) and Anna Bright (R) for the 2026 season. Will it pay off?MLPIn the first post-merger MLP dispersal draft in April 2024, the twelve teams that bid their way into the initial Premier League had to abide by a salary cap in the draft, and the total value of their four picks could not exceed $1M dollars (or “points” as they were referred to at the time in an attempt to obfuscate the amount of “real” money owners were being asked to contribute). As soon as the draft was over, Tyson McGuffin (initially drafted by Utah for $290k) demanded a trade, and the team flipped him to Orlando for Jay Devilliers (who Orlando paid just $135k for). Even though Orlando sent back some cash, suddenly the Squeeze had an immediate advantage: their roster was “worth" more than the salary cap dictated just a week prior. With such a small player pool and such small roster sizes, it was impossible to force the two teams to find exact trade partners to make the deal work under the $1M salary cap, so the league had little choice but to accept the deal and give Orlando an oversized roster advantage. More trades occurred over the years as some teams chose not to pay the renewal fees for players, and rosters quickly became unbalanced. Ben Johns, the most expensive player in the original dispersal draft at an initial $840k acquisition figure (and thus a $420k renewal figure) was traded from Carolina to the LA Mad Drops and instantly rocketed that roster well over the original $1M limit. And, thus started the inevitable progression to w...