Trade Window 1 of the 2025 MLP season has been open for less than a week, but the New York Hustlers have already been busy.

The Hustlers—who fell in the first round of the playoffs to eventual champions Dallas Flash in 2024—executed two trades that will send Jackie Kawamoto and CJ Klinger to the DC Pickleball Team and Columbus Sliders, respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

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Trade 1: New York Hustlers and DC Pickleball Team

• DC acquires Jackie Kawamoto
• New York acquires Vivian Glozman and cash considerations
•  

Trade 2: New York Hustlers and Columbus Sliders

• Columbus acquires CJ Klinger
• New York acquires Riley Newman and cash considerations
•  

Breaking things down

Let’s look at how these trades impact each roster.

New York: Jack Sock, Riley Newman, Lea Jansen, Vivian Glozman

New York benefits financially here, since they ended up acquiring money with both moves. That’s somewhat of a necessity, though, because they now have two 2024 first-round draft picks in Sock and Newman that they will have to pay to keep.

As a reminder, teams must pay ½ of what it cost to draft a player in 2024 to keep them in 2025. New York, then, would have to pay $275K to keep Sock, $275K to keep Newman, and $77K to keep Jansen.

Since Glozman was originally drafted by the Bay Area Breakers at the Challenger level, she is free to keep.

Now, to the on-court stuff.

Sock and Newman would be must-watch pickleball if they end up taking the court together. Both players are incredibly athletic, though it would be interesting to see what side Newman plays since we have traditionally seen Sock play the left.

The Glozman/Jansen partnership certainly has the capability to do well, but it’s hard to know since they played only one tournament together in 2024, falling in the Round of 16 in Sacramento.

Of course, New York—like every other team—is required to drop at least one player. It’s hard to imagine them dropping a free-to-keep player of Glozman’s caliber, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of their players traded or dropped.  

DC: James Ignatowich, Rachel Rohrabacher, Dekel Bar, Jackie Kawamoto

With this move, DC takes on the additional cost of $142.5K to keep Kawamoto. They already have an impressive roster, but I think that’s a pretty fair price for a player of Kawamoto’s caliber.

She and Rohrabacher would make a stellar women’s doubles pairing, though it would be interesting to see who would play the left side. Kawamoto’s best results have come when she has played the left, though Rohrabacher played the left with Glozman last year.

DC would still need to find a player to drop, however. This is a very well-balanced squad, but it’s hard to imagine Rohrabacher or Kawamoto being cut with the premium there is on top female talent.

That would leave either Ignatowich or Bar to be dropped or traded. In terms of pure value, I prefer to have Bar for his keeper price of $76K—compared to $250K for Ignatowich—especially considering that the latter sustained a back injury at the Masters.

Columbus: Jay Devilliers, CJ Klinger, Parris Todd, Callie Smith

Because Klinger was the third-to-last pick in the 2024 draft, the Sliders would have to pay just $1K to keep him on their roster for 2025. It would be exciting to see the talented lefty share the court with tour veteran Jay Devilliers.

Columbus is in an intriguing spot, since its roster now consists of three third-round picks and a fourth-round pick from last year’s draft. That means that it won’t cost too much to keep any of their players, though Klinger and Todd outplayed their draft positions in 2024.

If this roster stays, I would expect either Devilliers or Smith to be dropped or traded. Both are great players who have been around the game for a while, but the upside and relatively low keeper costs of Todd ($92.5K) and Klinger ($1K) make them too valuable to let go of.