First Premier Level Waiver Period Review

There have been a lot of firsts this year in Major League Pickleball (MLP) and we are only two events into the season.

Six player rosters instead of four (Premier Level only).

Side-out scoring instead of rally scoring.

“Stealing” of players.

Well, the first Premier Level Waiver period is upon us, and this article covers everything you need to know.

The Rules and a Timeline

Let’s start from the beginning. On January 22, MLP announced the competition structure for 2025.

The main changes were that each team in Premier Level would carry six roster spots and play would be side-out scoring, instead of rally scoring (among many other changes)

On February 26, 2025, just over a month later, MLP announced a new rule allowing teams to ‘steal’ players.

Essentially, there were going to be four Premier Level Waiver Periods, where teams could potentially take other teams’ players for their rosters. The stipulations made this difficult, though. 

Teams need to name their top four players (keepers) before each Waiver Period. If a team wants to claim a 5th or 6th player off another team’s roster, they would need to drop one of their aforementioned keepers (top four) to do so.

The purpose of the rule is to ensure the top level talent is playing on the courts, rather than stashed away on the sidelines.

On April 14, 2025, MLP announced yet another rule change regarding the waiver periods. Instead of four Premier Level Waiver periods, there will only be two. Additionally, the money teams bid for a Waiver period slot, go directly to the team losing a player, instead of to the league.

First Waiver Period Dates and Deadlines

According to the most recent MLP update, this timeline outlines dates and times for the first Waiver period:

• Tue, May 6 - Premier teams declare 5th and 6th players by Noon ET
• Wed, May 7 - MLP to share available player pool with Premier teams by Noon ET
• Thu, May 8 - Premier teams submit waivers bids via Dutch Auction by noon ET
• Fri, May 9 - MLP shares waiver selection order by Noon ET (picks cannot be traded)
• Mon, May 12 - Premier Level Waivers #1, beginning at Noon ET (one round)

Monday, at noon, is when teams will be making their Waiver period picks.

Eligible Player Pool

MLP shared the eligible player pool with the media on Thursday, May 8th. Most teams chose to keep their original starters, so the vast majority of bench players are available. Other UPA signed players, who are not on MLP rosters currently, are also eligible to be picked up.

Best available men - Tice’s Take

• Roscoe Bellamy - Columbus Sliders - Very good right side guy in men’s doubles and can get big in mixed doubles. While his record with Columbus wasn’t great as a sub two weeks ago, he passed the eye test.
• Erik Lange - St. Louis Shock - Another extremely steady right side guy in men’s and while he is over 40, he is still a very serviceable mixed doubles guy.

• Michael Loyd - Texas Ranchers - Loyd is a left side guy in both men’s and mixed and is easily the best left side guy available.
• Others: AJ Koller (free agent), Greg Dow (free agent), and Martin Emmrich (free agent)

Best available women - Tice’s Take

• Helena Jansen - Texas Ranchers - “Len” is a very good athlete and is getting better in doubles every day. 

The Bids

Per multiple sources, I know the SoCal Hard Eights submitted the only Waiver Period claim. 

What SoCal did was smart - here is why: Ryan Fu and Blaine Hovenier started the two matches for SoCal in MLP Orlando. Ivan Jakovljevic is the third guy on the roster, but him being a lefty forces one of the women (Irina Tereschenko and Judit Castillo) to play the left side in mixed, where they are both not as comfortable.

Instead of naming Fu and Hovenier their keepers, they named Jakovljevic as a keeper and left Ryan Fu available in the first Waiver period, knowing the odds are that no other team would pick him up. In my estimation, SoCal will be going for a guy to replace Ivan. 

This will allow SoCal to pick up another guy, and keep their two best guys, in Hovenier and Fu. To be honest, I am surprised more teams didn’t do this. I think the NY Hustlers and another team or two should have done this in the first Waiver period.

Who Will be Claimed

I would put the odds at over 75% the Hard Eights are going to claim Roscoe Bellamy. He just played five matches for Columbus, in the most recent event. His stats weren’t great, but he definitely passed the eye test.

I would argue Bellamy isn’t the best fit for the Hard Eights, because both Bellamy and Hovenier are right side guys. Unless they move one of them to the left, it will be Fu starting on the left, with either Bellamy or Hovenier starting on the right. We shall see how this all plays out.

This also begs another question, what happens to Columbus if Bellamy is indeed taken? Columbus has the right to pick up the player their player was dropped for, i.e. Ivan Jokovljevic. Or, they can fill out their roster with the remaining free agents. 

AJ Koller played as a sub for the LA Mad Drops in MLP Orlando, for an injured Hunter Johnson

I would suspect they pick up either Martin Emmrich, or AJ Koller, both of whom have subbed in for Premier teams this year already. My money is on Koller.

Key Takeaways

I am surprised some of the bottom level teams didn’t upgrade their roster by doing what SoCal did - mark their third-best man or woman as a keeper, knowing another team isn’t going to take them, and then pickup someone’s bench player. I assume we will see this play out a little more in June, when the next (and last) Premier Level Waiver period occurs.