Women's Professional Baseball League
The Women's Professional Baseball League (WPBL) is scheduled to have its inaugural season in the summer of 2026.
It will be the first professional league for women since the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was the subject of the movie "A League of Their Own," and lasted from 1943 - 1954.
Co-founded by WPBL Commissioner, Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach for an MLB team and founder of Baseball for All, and Keith Stein, the owner of the Inter-County Baseball League's Toronto Maple Leafs, the League's primary aim is to increase the visibility, growth and expansion of women's baseball. Because girls' baseball is not offered at the high school or college level, many girl baseball players transition to softball at a young age because they do not see a future for themselves in baseball. With the creation of the WPBL, girls now have a tangible goal to work towards.
The WPBL is getting started with four teams in Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. These cities were chosen because of their market size and potential large fan base. The League plans to expand to six to eight teams after the first season.
The 2026 season will run for four weeks, from August 1 through mid-September, followed by two weeks of play-offs. The entire 2026 season will be held at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. Games will be seven-innings and will be played with aluminum bats. Each team will have a roster of 15 players.
In 2025 over 600 players from 10 different countries attended open tryouts for the WPBL. The top 120 players were eligible to be drafted. Players from the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Curacao, Australia, France and England all made the top 120, with player ages ranging from 18 to 37. The first WPBL draft was conducted virtually in November 2025. Each team drafted 30 players. San Francisco had the first overall selection and chose Kelsie Whitmore, who has played for the USA Women's National Team and currently plays for the Savannah Bananas. For their first round pick, Los Angeles chose Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato who currently plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Canadian Baseball League and is the starting pitcher for the Japan women's national baseball team. Pitcher-outfielder Mo'ne Davis was the third round pick by Los Angeles. Mo'ne is well-known for competing in the Little League World Series at age 13, where she was the first girl to win a game and pitch a shut-out.