The Women’s Pro Baseball League made history on Nov. 20, when it held its first draft. The draft consisted of six rounds, with the five teams San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston, having 20 picks throughout each round, leaving each team with five picks for a total of 30 draft picks per team, with each team trying to fill their 15-player roster. As with any other draft, when a player gets drafted, it does not guarantee a player a roster spot or contract.
With the first-round pick of the night underway, San Francisco drafted 27-year-old Kelsie Whitmore, a right-handed pitcher and outfielder. She is the first woman to sign a contract with the Staten Island Ferry Hawks and the first woman to join a league affiliated with Major League Baseball, while also being the first female to play for the Savannah Bananas.
The second-round pick going to Los Angeles is 35-year-old Ayami Sato, a right-handed pitcher who helped lead Japan to six Women’s Baseball World Cup championships.
She also joined the Toronto Maple Leafs, making her the first woman to play in the professional Canadian Baseball League.
The third draft pick going to New York is 32-year-old Kylee Lahners, who plays third base. In her career, she played for the University of Washington and for the U.S. national baseball team.
With the fourth draft pick, Boston drafted 25-year-old Hyeonah Kim, a catcher from South Korea who shows great leadership behind the plate and is one of four eligible Korean players in the draft. Coming into the draft as the one well-known name, everyone wanted to know which team Mo’ne Davis was going to land in. She was drafted in the first round by the 10th overall pick by Los Angeles.
Davis is well known for being the first woman to throw a shutout game in the Little League World Series, but now her new position is an outfielder. At the end of the draft, the audience noticed what areas the teams were focusing on. San Francisco was one of the few teams to focus on pitching. San Francisco drafted a total of eight pitchers, most of them being right-handed pitchers with lots of experience.
Los Angeles focused on having a good blend of the team players’ experiences. New York also focused on their bullpen by drafting nine pitchers with a mix of right-handed and left-handed pitchers. Boston focused on their bullpen and making a blend of player experience and drafted younger players. The first-ever season of the Women’s Pro Baseball League is set to start in August 2026 on the Natural Grounds at Springfield, Illinois in Robin Roberts Stadium.