Worden: Padgham, Schroder likely to be selected early in inaugural Women’s Pro Baseball League draft
Women’s National Team right-hander Raine Padgham (Abbotsford, B.C.) will hear her name called in the inaugural Women’s Pro Baseball League draft tonight. Photo: Baseball Canada
November 20, 2025
By Zach Worden
Canadian Baseball Network
Led by the Women’s National Team, Canada has long been one of the global leaders in women’s baseball. That presence will only grow on Thursday night as the Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) conducts its inaugural draft.
Twenty Canadians are among the players eligible to be selected as the league begins assembling the rosters that will launch its first season in 2026.
It’s been no easy task — for both the trailblazing players and the WPBL itself — to arrive at the historic day, however.
Officially announced in October 2024, the WPBL has spent the last calendar year gearing up for first pitch in 2026. That has included landing on Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco as its first four cities, hosting a tryout for prospective players in Washington, D.C., and finding a location to host the action, which will last approximately seven weeks.
Buying into what the league represented was the easy part for the players. Standing out among a field of more than 600 hopefuls from over 10 countries, though, was a different challenge entirely.
“It was pretty amazing to see,” Team Canada star pitcher and outfielder Raine Padgham said of the tryout at Nationals Park. “Honestly, women’s baseball was such a small little world to me beforehand, because just playing on the National Team, [when you] play Team USA, Team Mexico, you only see a handful of players from every country.
“But seeing everyone come together, trying to aim for the same goal, was really cool.”
From that tryout of more than 600 players, the WPBL narrowed the field to just over 120 draft-eligible athletes.
It’s those 120 who will hear their names called on Thursday, as the six-round draft unfolds. Each round will consist of 20 picks — five per team — which will result in each team selecting 30 players when the night is finished.
“I can’t imagine being in their shoes,” Canadian Women’s National Team manager Anthony Pluta said of seeing draft day arrive.
“What an opportunity for these women to get a chance to play,” he later added. “It gives everyone across Canada an opportunity to see themselves playing baseball at the highest level, which is really cool. And for us, hopefully it continues to help us grow the game.”
The WPBL announced in late October that San Francisco has won the first pick and will be followed by Los Angeles, New York and then Boston, before the draft proceeds in a snake order.
For many of the players, the why or the when isn’t really all that important, though. After growing up without a professional women’s league to strive for, hearing their names called on Thursday will mark a significant step for each of their careers and for the game as a whole.
Women’s National Team right-hander Alli Schroder (Fruitvale, B.C.) will be selected in the inaugural Women’s Pro Baseball League draft tonight. Photo: Baseball Canada
Canadian right-hander Alli Schroder is hosting a draft party in Nelson, B.C., where she will be surrounded by her family and others who have supported her baseball dreams.
“Growing up, I always watched all the draft videos of guys getting the call and getting drafted to MLB,” she said of the anticipation leading up to Thursday. “I never imagined there would be anything of that sort for me or the other women that play baseball, or softball for that matter.”
“It’s something that’s been a long time coming,” she continued. “I didn’t think it would happen in my career, so I’m super excited for the moment.”
Both Padgham and Schroder are expected to be among the first names called during the draft.
The pair of right-handers have become household names on Team Canada, with both making their National Team debuts as teenagers. They have also broken barriers in the Canadian College Baseball Conference, as Schroder became the league’s first woman when she suited up for Vancouver Island University in 2023, and Padgham followed suit as the first woman to play at Thompson Rivers University in 2024.
For as much history as they’ve already made in their respective careers, they will take another step into the record books as inaugural members of the WPBL — something they hope will open doors for young girls who want to pursue baseball.
“We talk about visibility a lot in our sport,” Schroder said. “For me growing up, I was always shooting in the dark. Hopefully something will happen, hopefully I’ll get another opportunity, hopefully I’ll be able to keep playing.
“But now, I don’t think there’s any of that for young girls that are in the game. They can see that there’s a professional league that you can play in as a woman baseball player.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Padgham.
“I know when I was younger, there wasn’t much of a pathway for women’s baseball,” she said. “And I guess up until the announcement of this league, there wasn’t much out there. So I think it’ll just bring excitement to the girls that are already playing, but will also bring a lot more girls to the sport.”
Young Canadian girls from coast to coast will have plenty of names to follow when first pitch officially flies on the WPBL. Alongside Padgham and Schroder, standout Canucks Zoe Hicks (Boissevain, Man.), Madison Willan (Edmonton, Alta.), Andreanne Leblanc (Mont-Saint-Hillaire, Que.) and Jaida Lee (St. John’s, Nfld.) were identified among the league’s top draft prospects. Impressive stuff, but perhaps even more exciting for Canadian baseball is having 14 others on the draft-eligible list.
To Pluta, having that depth of talent from north of the border signals just how competitive the Canadian contingent will be when the action gets underway.
“I’ve been impressed every day that I spend time with the ladies on this team. I have nothing but the utmost respect for what they do,” he said. “We’ve got these women that work so hard, and they’re going to put their heads down and compete on any stage that they go into.
“I definitely think they’re going to stack up. I think they’re going to come in and compete and do well.”
The 2026 season will officially get underway on Aug. 1, shortly following the Women’s Baseball World Cup. All games will be played at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Ill., with teams playing twice a week. There will be four weeks of regular-season action, one week of all-star competition and two weeks of post-season play.
But first comes Thursday’s draft, where dreams will turn to reality as Padgham, Schroder, their 18 countrymates and the WPBL as a whole take the next step into a new era of women’s baseball.