New U.S.-based women’s professional baseball league set to debut in 2026

A professional women’s baseball league aims to begin competition in the U.S. in 2026, according to a news release issued Tuesday.

The Women’s Pro Baseball League will feature six teams, based in the northeastern United States, and will be the only professional women’s baseball league in America, the release says.

The league’s co-founders are Keith Stein, a lawyer and businessman, and Justine Siegal, founder of Baseball For All, a nonprofit that provides opportunities for girls to play and coach baseball. In 2015, the Oakland A’s hired Siegal as a guest instructor for their club in the Arizona Instructional League, and she became the first female coach in Major League Baseball. She has also pitched batting practice for a handful of MLB teams.

Decorated Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato and former MLB manager Cito Gaston, who won back-to-back World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays, will serve as special advisors.

Sato was featured in “See Her, Be Her,” a two-hour documentary that premiered on MLB Network last Sunday and tells the stories of several top female baseball players. The film features a cameo by Maybelle Blair, 97, who played for the Peoria Red Wings in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1948.

The story of the AAGPBL was also told in a documentary called “A League of Their Own,” which served as inspiration for the beloved Hollywood film of the same name.

Ahead of the release of “See Her, Be Her,” Blair said it “brings tears to my eyes thinking about starting a new league.”

The league is working on securing a national broadcast deal for its inaugural season.

In the news release, Stein, the WPBL co-founder, cited the success of the WNBA and National Women’s Soccer League as examples of “incredible interest and support for women’s sport.”

The announcement of this new league comes soon after the conclusion of what WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert recently called “the most transformational year in the WNBA’s history,” capped by a Game 5 that was the most-viewed WNBA Finals game in 25 years.

Also on Tuesday, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) announced it is preparing to expand beyond its inaugural six teams, possibly as early as in the 2025-2026 season. The league’s second season is set to begin Nov. 30.

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(Photo: Norm Hall / Getty Images)