The inaugural draft of the Women’s Professional Baseball League was held Thursday and saw 120 players get drafted between the four teams. Amongst the names called was former Mizzou softball player Micaela Minner. 

In the sixth and final round, Minner became the second to last pick for San Francisco. At 40, she was also the oldest player to be selected.

The WPBL held tryouts from Aug. 22-25 with over 600 players signed up to participate. Of the players that attended, 120 women were chosen to be eligible to draft. Each of the four teams were able to draft 30 players and will continue to narrow the teams down, since there are only 15 roster spots per team.

Minner will have a tough journey ahead of her in order to take a roster spot from one of the first 15 players drafted by San Francisco.  

“Now I have to put in the hard work,” Minner said during the draft on Facebook. “They have said that if you were drafted in the last three rounds, most likely you are going to have to fight really hard to break into the 15-man roster. So now is when I have to put in the hard work, I have to show up on a whole other level to really fight for the contract.”

Minner played outfield from 2005-2009 for the Tigers, where her bat helped her rise above her peers. The left-handed hitter remains sixth in program history for batting average with .352 average. Minner is also second in doubles, fourth in RBI and ninth in home runs. 

Growing up, Minner played baseball until she reached high school and wasn’t able to join the team there, then pivoted to softball. In recent years, she has gotten back into baseball

While Minner played at Mizzou, she had an injury riddled career. In her first season, she broke both bones in her leg while trying to make a play, forcing her to redshirt. She also had to redshirt in 2008 after tearing her ACL. Following college, she was drafted to  the Akron Ohio Racers in the National Pro Fastpitch League, but was unable to play due to various injuries sustained in her final year at Mizzou. She returned to the Racers in 2010, before retiring in 2012 from another injury.

Minner is aiming to prove that she can still put it the work and play with the best. She will try to be one of the players for the inaugural WPBL season that is set to begin on Aug. 1, 2026, with all games being played in Springfield, Illinois.Â