The Women’s Professional League (WPBL) announced they will start in the summer of 2026 with six teams in Northeastern cities.
The league is co-founded by Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach a professional men’s baseball team and to pitch batting practice against a Major League Baseball team. She is also the founder of Baseball For All, a nonprofit that promotes baseball for girls.
“I am so excited that there will finally be a professional women’s baseball league – it is a dream come true for all the girls and women who play America’s Pastime.” – Justin Siegal
Legendary pitcher Ayami Sato and former World Series winning manager, Cito Gaston, are serving as special advisors to the WPBL. League co-founder Keith Stein, is a lawyer and businessman with a history in professional sports leagues and team ownership.
“We believe that the success of other women’s professional leagues such as the WNBA and NWSL demonstrates the incredible interest and support for women’s sport.” – Keith Stein.
The WPBL plans on securing a national broadcast deal for its inaugural season which will consist of a regular season, playoffs and championship throughout the summer of 2026. The WPBL will be a national league with teams based across the U.S. For the 2026 season, the WPBL will launch with six teams predominantly in the Northeast.
“The Women’s Pro Baseball League is here for all the girls and women who dream of a place to showcase their talents and play the game they love,” added Siegal. “We have been waiting over 70 years for a professional baseball league we can call our own. Our time is now.”
No state offers girls baseball as a high school sport, just softball. Last year there were 1,372 high school girls who played on boys teams across America. 471,761 boys played baseball and 345,607 girls played softball.
The U.S. women’s national baseball team is a mix of women who played top college softball or suited up alongside men on lower-division hardball teams.
In the gold-medal game of the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup this summer, which Team USA lost to Japan, softball players had a pivotal role. The starting pitcher was Jillian Albayati, who plays both softball and baseball for Cal State San Marcos; the leadoff hitter was Florida International University softball infielder Ashton Lansdell, who scored two runs that day; and the No. 2 hitter was former University of Georgia softball star Alex Hugo, who drove in three runs.
The league says they still have many decisions to make and outlined several key goals for its development:
- A player draft in November of 2025.
- With the prevalence of two-way players, the roster will likely be far less than the MLB’s 26.
- The league aims to play approximately 40 games from May to August in college or minor league stadiums with the capacity for 2,500-5,000 fans.
- They are leaning toward a 7-inning game, which is the standard for women’s international baseball.
- They are mulling over the more intricate rules of the current MLB play like the pitch clock, shift bans, and universal DH.
- The WPBL is hoping to land a national television deal.
The WPBL is the only professional women’s baseball league in the United States.
The announcement of the league comes amid a massive expansion in women’s professional sports throughout the country. The WNBA, fresh off a record-breaking season in both attendance and viewership, is adding three new teams over the next two years — starting with the Golden State Valkyries next summer. The National Women’s Soccer League is expected to announce a 16th franchise by the end of the year, and the Professional Women’s Hockey League is gearing up for its second season next month. The PWHL is planning to expand for the first time, possibly as early as the 2025-2026 season. Their second season starts November 30th.
