The excruciatingly long period of the winter in which there is no Major League Baseball has passed its halfway point. Usually, though, “no baseball” does not truly mean no baseball. There might be no games to watch, but you can follow along with bated breath as your team signs free agents or makes blockbuster trades. At its best, the offseason is as exhilarating as the season is.
For me, that has not been the case: My New York Yankees have not made a single significant move this offseason.
The team valued at $8.2 billion dollars — far more than any other team in MLB — has sat around twiddling its thumbs since November. I have watched impatiently as the Chicago Cubs signed third baseman Alex Bregman, the Baltimore Orioles added first baseman Pete Alonso, the Los Angeles Dodgers lured in Kyle Tucker and the Houston Astros picked up Japanese starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai. I am still waiting for my turn.
But — and perhaps I should not be surprised — while the men in baseball have spent their entire winters dilly-dallying, the women have been far more productive.
When the calendar flipped to 2026, it did not just mark the start of any new year: For the first time since 1954, the U.S. sports landscape will feature a professional women’s baseball league.
Founded by Justine Siegal, the first woman to serve as a coach for an MLB team, the Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) will start its season in May 2026. Four teams, announced in October 2025, will play in the league’s inaugural season. Although these first four teams do not yet have names or mascots, they will represent San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City and Boston.
It looks like I have a new favorite New York baseball team to root for — and a new Boston one to scoff at.
For at least the first few seasons, though, each team’s city is little more than an identifier. All four teams will play at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Ill., a historic baseball field with a capacity of about 5,200. The regular season will begin this August and span four weeks, with each team playing 30 games before entering an additional two-week postseason. Games will last seven innings each, a small departure from pro baseball’s traditional nine.
Notably, the WPBL will operate entirely independently from MLB. The league, which is led almost entirely by women, struck a national broadcasting deal with Fremantle in May 2025.
In one of my very first editions of this column — which finally has more editions than the Yankees have World Series rings — I wrote that girls often “grow up hearing that baseball is for their brothers, not for them.”
For the first time in recent history, that is no longer the case.
I might still be unable to find an authentic Derek Jeter jersey in women’s sizes, but the existence of the WPBL serves as a more-than-sufficient consolation prize.
No longer will young girls interested in pursuing a career in baseball need to turn to men in search of a role model. Personally, I am just grateful that baseball fans in the New York City area have options beyond the uninspiring Yankees — yet I recognize that the WPBL’s impact is even broader than just providing me with an option to change the channel.
The WPBL will follow in the footsteps of the young Professional Women’s Hockey League and build on the recent, dramatic rise in viewership of women’s basketball.
So maybe this winter has not brought me a new free agent signing — but if the WPBL successfully raises female representation and viewership in professional baseball, it will have been worth it.
