Sports
News Analysis: Dodgers to meet with Juan Soto, signaling more big spending is possible this winter
There were two prevailing thoughts from some people around the Dodgers organization regarding Juan Soto’s free agency this winter.
The team is probably unlikely to land the 26-year-old superstar, who is expected to command a contract upward of $600-$700 million on a frenzied open market.
But, the Dodgers might as well try nonetheless, since they possess the competitive track record and financial resources to be one of Soto’s few realistic landing spots this offseason.
That pursuit is set to begin in earnest this week, according to a person with knowledge of the situation unauthorized to speak publicly, with Dodgers officials scheduled to meet with Soto and his agent Scott Boras on Tuesday, as MLB.com first reported.
That meeting will be the latest in a string of presentations from big-market clubs pursuing Soto in free agency.
Already, the four-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger has reportedly met with the incumbent New York Yankees, deep-pocketed New York Mets and superstar-hungry Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox.
Despite helping the Yankees reach the World Series this year in a stellar first season in the Bronx, Soto has also said all teams will have an equal opportunity to sign him.
Landing him, therefore, will likely require winning an unprecedented bidding war.
To this point, the Dodgers — even in the wake of their billion-dollar-plus offseason last year — haven’t been scared away yet.
“Our ownership group has been incredibly supportive, and we’ve talked about payroll, how it fluctuates, and there’s very rarely like one set number,” general manager Brandon Gomes said earlier this month, speaking generally about the club’s ability to spend significantly again this winter.
“Like every single year, the goal is a championship-caliber team,” Gomes added. “They’ve always given us the opportunity to do what we need to, to help us put us in the best position possible for that.”
Soto would certainly fill a major need for the team in the outfield this winter, but the organization would typically be loath to consider such an expensive bid for a free-agent player.
Most of the major acquisitions they’ve made in recent years have come on lucrative yet relatively team-friendly deals, from Mookie Betts’ $365-million extension in 2020 (which could prove to be almost half of Soto’s cost), to Freddie Freeman’s $162-million signing in 2022 (he now has only the fifth-highest tax hit on the team), to Shohei Ohtani’s heavily deferred $700-million deal last offseason (in which $680 million of his salary won’t be paid out until a decade from now).
The Dodgers are also already well on their way to paying hefty luxury tax penalties for a fifth consecutive season next year, with more than $270 million in salary on the books for competitive balance tax purposes (the first tax threshold is at $241 million, and surcharges would reach 110% if they surpass $301 million).
However, the Dodgers are not facing typical financial restraints either.
Ohtani’s historic deferrals have kept the team’s actual payroll levels flexible, and seemingly made club executives more willing to pay luxury tax penalties long-term.
The team also experienced an economic windfall this season, thanks to the staggering revenue boosts that came with Ohtani’s celebrated arrival and the club’s first full-season World Series title since 1988.
The question is not whether chairman Mark Walter and his Guggenheim ownership group have the money to spend on Soto — or any other top free-agent target this winter — but if they feel the investment would be worth the gaudy price tag.
Last winter, the team made a similar calculation when it came to Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The then-25-year-old right-hander prompted a wide bidding war between MLB teams. The Dodgers, in a break from character, emerged victorious, giving Yamamoto the biggest contract for a pitcher (outside of Ohtani) in MLB history with a 12-year, $325-million deal.
The impetus for that signing, as multiple people with the club later acknowledged, was about more than just winning baseball games.
The Dodgers’ ownership group was eager to expand its footprint in Japan — both for the Dodgers’ own brand, and Walter’s Guggenheim investment firm (right down to having prominent Guggenheim patches on the sleeves of the club’s jerseys).
To that end, Yamamoto’s arrival came with plenty of added value, giving the team a young, talented arm who could also bolster their global marketing efforts (and help deflect some of the spotlight from Ohtani).
Soto’s agent, Boras, has tried to pitch his client similarly.
During the regular season, Boras billed Soto as the “greatest surplus value in free agent history,” highlighting Soto’s incredibly rare combination of age (at 26, his whole prime remains in front of him) and already dominant offensive profile (since 2019, Aaron Judge is the only position player who has been worth more wins above replacement, according to Fangraphs).
At this month’s general managers meetings, Boras doubled down, claiming that a club could potentially “make literally billions of dollars by acquiring somebody like him” over the life of the deal.
“It’s a great business investment,” Boras added. “Getting an opportunity to acquire a player at this age, with this skill, with this character, with this experience, with so much performance gradient established, [teams] understand the surplus value of it.”
The question is whether it will be enough to tempt the Dodgers into another commitment of more than half a billion dollars.
The team, of course, still has other needs this winter. Among starting pitchers, the Dodgers are considered a likely landing spot for another Japanese star, 23-year-old Roki Sasaki, and have also been linked to top MLB free agents like Blake Snell, Max Fried and Corbin Burnes. Unless they get Soto, the outfield will also be a priority, especially if the team fails to re-sign Teoscar Hernández.
There are other reasons to engage in the Soto sweepstakes, too. The team could juice Soto’s cost for other championship contenders. Or, they could lurk around the backboard, as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman likes to say, in case his market develops differently than expected.
Still, the fact the team is even entertaining a meeting with this year’s top free agent suggests the Dodgers, for all the spending they did last offseason, aren’t tightening their purse strings yet.
The last year has transformed the club’s financial outlook and spending capabilities. They might still be long shots for Soto. But at this juncture, there was no point in not trying to make a strong impression upon the star target either.
The Cleveland Browns, rumored to be willing to trade down from their No. 6 overall selection in the 2026 NFL draft, did just that Thursday evening when the traded the pick to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cleveland traded the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft to the Chiefs, in exchange for the ninth overall pick, as well as pick No. 74 in the third round and No. 148 in the fifth round.
The Browns now hold the No. 9 and No. 24 picks in the first round of the draft. They have a total of 11 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Quarterbacks Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns watch from the sidelines during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 7, 2025. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
So the Chiefs gave up three picks in making the first trade of the first round.
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And we know what the fan bases of both clubs were thinking prior to the selection:
Chiefs fans were thinking we know something they don’t. And then the Chiefs selected cornerback Mansoor Delane from LSU — a move no doubt forced by the club’s trade of Pro Bowl cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams earlier in the offseason.
So, the Chiefs fill a major need, assuming Delane is indeed the quality corner they believe.
LSU Tigers CB Mansoor Delane celebrates a defensive stop against the Clemson Tigers at Memorial Stadium in South Carolina. (Ken Ruinard/USA TODAY Network)
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ESPN’s Mel Kiper didn’t like the pick, by the way. He had Delane as the 14th best player in the draft.
“It was a necessity,” ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, a former NFL defensive back, responded.
Browns fans weren’t thinking that way.
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They were probably thinking something akin to “We screwed up.”
This is understandable because they’re Browns fans and this could have been the Browns Browning.
Well, the Browns, moving down three slots, gave up a shot to draft linebacker Sonny Styles of Ohio State to the Washington Commanders, receiver Jordyn Tyson to the New Orleans Saints and then the Browns got their chance with the newly acquired No. 9 pick:
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Offensive tackle Spencer Fano of Utah.
Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Ind., on Feb. 24, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Fano is good. And he makes the Browns offensive line instantly better because he’s going to likely start at left tackle for them.
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So what will Browns fans think of this pick?
They’ll probably wonder why the Browns didn’t pick Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, who went with the No. 10 pick to the New York Giants and promised “to die for” Jaxson Dart if necessary. They’ll wonder this because Browns fans expect the worst.
UCLA women’s basketball team has added some star power as its revamped roster begins to take shape.
Former Iowa State forward Addy Brown announced Thursday she is committing to UCLA, giving the Bruins one of the top players in the portal.
Brown averaged 11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 43.1% from the floor and 33.8% from three-point distance with the Cyclones last season. She played just 21 games due to injury, but she is one of the better two-way players in the nation on the transfer market.
The 6-foot-2 forward co-starred with Audi Crooks for Iowa State the past few seasons and was a part of the mass exodus from the Cyclones’ program.
The Bruins reeled in former North Carolina junior guard Elina Aarnisalo and former Texas Christian senior guard Donovyn Hunter a few weeks ago, adding two more experienced players to the depleted starting lineup after a record six UCLA players were selected in the WNBA draft.
UCLA also signed Arkansas sophomore guard Bonnie Deas earlier this month. She is likely to start at point guard for the Bruins and is one of the best rebounding guards in the nation.
Along with returner Timea Gardiner, the Bruins are starting to form somewhat of a core to defend their national championship. Gardiner was a starter during UCLA’s 2024-25 Final Four run, but missed all of this past season with injury and has one season of eligibility left.
A lineup with Deas and Aarnisalo in the backcourt, Hunter at the three and Gardiner or Brown at the four and adding another big or Sienna Betts at the five would be a competitive lineup in the Big Ten.
Before going to TCU, Hunter played two seasons at Oregon State where she earned All-Pac-12 Defensive Team honorable mention and All-Pac-12 Freshman team honors. This past season with a Horned Frogs team that went to the Sweet 16, she was third in scoring with 10.2 points per game and averaged 3.2 rebounds per contest. She also shot 45.7% from the field and was 33.7% from beyond the arc.
Aarnisalo played her freshman year in Westwood after she originally committed to UCLA in 2025. Due to injuries from point guard Kiki Rice at the start of the 2024-25 season, she was forced into action early her freshman season and finished the year averaging 5.1 points per game.
The Helsinki, Finland, native averaged 10.2 points per game for the Tar Heels as a sophomore last season while shooting 47.3% from the field and 40.3% from the arc. The Bruins will desperately need to replace the three-point production lost with the departure of Rice, Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker.
UCLA coach Cori Close said she wanted to sign five players from the portal. She probably needs one more guard and a little more forward depth coming off the bench following the departures of Gabriela Jaquez and Angela Dugalic.
Lena Bilic and Amanda Muse are returners coming off the bench who got a little bit of playing time in the tournament and should have much larger roles, but they are still relatively unproven in late-game situations. They will get a chance to develop as backups with some more Power Four experienced starters now in the fold.
Trump says there’s ‘no time frame’ to secure Iran deal
Republican Minnesota Senate candidate Tom Weiler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss President Donald Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iranian conflict continues and react to Gov. Tim Walz’s, D-Minn., criticism of the president.
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Saudi Arabia was among the countries seeing missiles fly into their airspace as a conflict broke out in the Middle East between the U.S. and Iran.
The prospect of Iran targeting its Middle Eastern neighbors like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates put some sporting events on hold and questioned others. Formula 1 races in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were canceled and rumors swirled around whether future WWE events could be held in the kingdom.
Roman Reigns celebrates his win during WWE’s Royal Rumble at Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 31, 2026. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
As the Trump administration brokered a ceasefire with Iran, WWE announced on Thursday that its Night of Champions premium live event will be held in Riyadh on June 27.
“We are proud to welcome Night of Champions back to Riyadh and look forward to delivering another unforgettable night of WWE action for fans in the Kingdom and around the world,” General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Al-Sheikh said in a news release.
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Sami Zayn makes his entrance during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
The release touted that WrestleMania 43 will still be held in Riyadh in 2027. It will be the first time that WrestleMania is held outside the U.S.
WWE president Nick Khan was adamant before WrestleMania 42 that the event will still take place in Saudi Arabia despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“We’re doing WrestleMania next year in Saudi,” he said at a Sports Business Journal event, via The Sporting Tribune. “First time ever, WrestleMania will be outside the United States or Canada. And we’ve had a big, fruitful partnership with them.”
John Cena wrestles CM Punk during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
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He added that those complaining about WrestleMania being held in Saudi Arabia were a “vocal minority.”
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