ORLANDO, Fla. — If there’s one team willing and able to give outfielder Kyle Tucker the $400 million he seeks in free agency, it’s the Toronto Blue Jays, according to many of the agents, executives and managers at baseball’s annual winter meetings this week. And if there’s one team with the capability to both trade for and extend Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, according to insiders, it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Less than six weeks after engaging in one of the most thrilling, tightly contested World Series in recent memory, the Blue Jays and Dodgers reside at the center of an offseason expected to brim with activity over the next week, embedded in the sport’s subconscious once again.

The Blue Jays have already landed arguably the best free agent pitcher, signing Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210 million contract, and are poised to hand out another nine-figure deal in their pursuit of a bat. The Dodgers signed the most decorated closer in free agency, agreeing to terms on a three-year, $69 million deal with Edwin Diaz, and have the resources to pull off this offseason’s biggest trade, in whichever form it takes. The Blue Jays ultimately might not land Tucker. The Dodgers — in search of an outfielder and also interested in Tucker, though only on a short-term deal — might not get Skubal. But their presence is stark at a time when so many big-market owners seem unwilling to spend.

The Chicago Cubs need an assortment of pitching but are wary of the luxury-tax threshold; the Houston Astros desperately need to replace free agent Framber Valdez in the rotation but will probably have to do so via trade; the San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers are looking to cut costs once again; the San Francisco Giants are expected to act conservatively; and though the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and New York Mets could all sign at least one major free agent position player this offseason, they’ve all been operating in more budget-conscious ways than their fans are used to.

A free agent pool defined more so by its depth than by its star power is certainly a factor. But two agents who spoke to ESPN this week said some teams have told them they’re not acting aggressively in free agency because of labor issues they believe will lead to a lockout next December and could alter the economics of the sport significantly. The continued deterioration of local TV deals is just as big of a factor, if not more so, league and team sources have said. And yet the Blue Jays and Dodgers appear to exist outside of those concerns, which probably shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The Blue Jays are backed by Rogers Communications, one of Canada’s largest media conglomerates. The Dodgers, further bolstered by the vast revenue streams generated by Shohei Ohtani, have what many consider the most lucrative and most stable local-media contract in the industry.

They might be on another collision course.

IF YOU WANT to get a sense for how things have changed financially for the Dodgers since signing Ohtani 24 months ago, look no further than the relievers. At the start of 2025, the Dodgers signed Tanner Scott to a four-year, $72 million deal, the type of massive commitment for a volatile position group that Andrew Friedman, now in his 12th year as president of baseball operations, had spent his entire career avoiding. Scott flamed out tremendously in his first year in L.A., and yet Friedman went to the well again on Tuesday, addressing the Dodgers’ ninth-inning need by rewarding Díaz with the highest average annual value ever for a reliever.

It’s ultimately not complicated: Dodgers owner Mark Walter is willing to spend whatever it takes, and his lieutenants are happy to oblige.

“We are in a really strong position right now, financially, and our ownership group has been incredibly supportive of pouring that back into our team and that partnership with our fans,” Friedman said.

“As we look at things, if we were on a really tight budget, we probably wouldn’t allocate in the same way. But having more resources, it allows us to be a little bit more aggressive on that point. In a world where there are major constraints, that wouldn’t be an area where I personally would allocate versus other areas. But we’re in a really fortunate position right now, and we have a really talented team going into 2026. We’re going to do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position to win a World Series.”

Díaz followed Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Teoscar Hernandez, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki and Scott — all considered among the best players available at their respective positions over the past three offseasons, all acquired by the Dodgers. The team’s competitive-balance-tax payroll finished at roughly $415 million in 2025, a whopping $70 million more than the second-place Mets. The Díaz deal all but ensures they’ll once again blow past Major League Baseball’s highest threshold in 2026.

The Dodgers are interested in bringing Enrique Hernandez back, sources said, and would prefer to trade from their surplus of outfield prospects to augment their lineup, with bat-to-ball specialists like Cleveland Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan and St. Louis Cardinals utility man Brendan Donovan seen as ideal fits. In other words, they can very easily just go the straightforward route. Or, as they aggressively pursue a three-peat, they can pounce on Tucker with another short-term, high-AAV deal, or use their vast starting-pitching depth — including, perhaps, Glasnow, whose name has been thrown around — to get Skubal. They might even do both.

In the words of one rival executive: “You can never rule anything out with them.”

TUCKER MAKES HIS offseason home in Tampa, Florida, 25 miles from the Blue Jays’ spring training headquarters in Dunedin. Visiting the complex of one of his most aggressive suitors is a no-brainer as Tucker navigates his first free agency. And yet reports of him being spotted there last week raised eyebrows — not just from Blue Jays fans still recovering from a deflating World Series loss, but from industry insiders who recognize the type of game changer that place can be.

A facility alone won’t singlehandedly sway a top-tier free agent, of course, but if there’s one capable of doing so, the Blue Jays’ sprawling, state-of-the art spring training home is it.

As one agent said, “It’s sick.”

But it’s also not new. The Blue Jays have boasted arguably the most advanced complex in baseball ever since an $80 million renovation was completed five years ago. The city of Toronto, meanwhile, has always been held in high regard. Their fans have always been passionate. But over these past eight months, during which Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed a $500 million extension and led a World Series run that captivated an entire country, players’ perceptions of them have shifted dramatically.

“You’re on Zoom calls with high-profile players that are speaking very, very highly of the organization, the facilities, the players that are on the team and how they conduct themselves,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “That’s been a shift. I feel like in years past, with some high-profile players, it’s kind of been us selling us to them, whereas now I think the players know what they’re getting into as soon as they start talking to us.”

For so long, the Blue Jays were the team left at the altar. Inspired runs at Juan Soto, Ohtani and Sasaki led only to heartbreak. Now the expectation is that players are finally going to take their money. It started with Guerrero’s extension in April, then Cease and fellow starter Cody Ponce in free agency earlier this month. But the Blue Jays are also expected to add a bona fide late-inning reliever, and several agents and rival execs view them as the favorites for either Tucker or Bichette — or potentially both.

Their march to the World Series made them a legitimate landing spot for players who long to win and cast new light on a stretch previously marked by three playoff appearances and zero victories. It has also highlighted their most appealing traits.

Schneider’s popularity with players is one of them. Canada’s fervor for the Blue Jays, which became the country’s lone major league franchise when the Montreal Expos left, is another. Their facilities — a sprawling campus in Dunedin and a state-of-the-art weight room in Toronto, all designed to make them a destination spot — are yet another.

Most notable of all, though, is their money.

It might finally be making a difference.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Steven Stamkos rediscovered his scoring touch with a four-goal outing Thursday night, and it’s no coincidence that the Nashville Predators‘ trajectory is suddenly pointing up.

After a slow start to the season, Stamkos now has eight goals in his past eight outings, which coincides with the Predators going 6-2 over that stretch following a 7-2 win over the St. Louis Blues.

“I’m going to have to remember what I ate for breakfast. When you get to my age sometimes you forget,” said the 35-year-old, who opened the season with four goals in his first 22 games. “Sometimes you feel the legs are feeling light and tonight, when you score one early in the game, I think that’s the feeling you have. And it was nice to contribute in a big win for our group.”

The four-goal outing was the second of Stamkos’ 18-year career. He previously scored four times in a 7-4 win at Edmonton on Dec. 14, 2023, while with the Tampa Bay Lightning. And he became just the fourth Predators player to score four times, joining Filip Forsberg and Rocco Grimaldi (both in 2021) and Eric Nystrom (2014).

Stamkos opened the scoring 8:22 in by batting in his own rebound on a 2-on-1 break. He made it 2-0 less than three minutes later by converting a rebound in front after Jordan Binnington stopped Roman Josi’s initial shot from the blue line.

He then completed his 15th career hat trick with a shot from the high slot that deflected in off the skate of Blues defenseman Justin Faulk 12:06 into the second period. And his fourth goal made it 6-2 and came 3:27 later, when Josi’s shot deflected onto Stamkos’ stick in front, from where he backhanded it in behind Binnington.

It was his 102nd career multigoal game, the third-most among active players behind only Alex Ovechkin (181) and Sidney Crosby (110). And he became the first player age 35-or-older with a 4-goal game since Anze Kopitar in 2023.

Stamkos, the No. 1 pick in the 2008 draft, also is closing in on becoming the 22nd player to reach 600 goals. Stamkos now has 594, leaving him seven short of matching Jari Kurri.

“It’s a little surreal, to be honest, when you look at the history of this league and how many great players there’s been,” he said of the milestone.

What mattered more was the win.

In his second season in Nashville, Stamkos was part of the Predators’ 2024 offseason major spending spree that failed to pan out with the team missing the playoffs last season. Nashville (12-14-4) followed by getting off to a slow start to this season before its recent run inching the team closer into contention.

“It hasn’t quite worked out the way that we wanted to in terms of the success we’ve had as a team. But we’re rolling right now,” Stamkos said. “I think we’re playing some hockey that people probably expected us to play, and expected of ourselves. And we want to keep that going.”

Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.

The dates for the first nine-game SEC schedule were released on Thursday, and all eyes are on Sept. 19, when Lane Kiffin and LSU return to Ole Miss after Kiffin’s dramatic exit for Baton Rouge.

Among other marquee games scheduled for 2026: Georgia travels to Alabama on Oct. 10 after they split two matchups in 2025: Alabama won in Athens and Georgia won in Atlanta in the SEC title game.

On Nov. 14, Arch Manning returns to his home state of Louisiana with Texas to face LSU, as former USC and Alabama colleagues Steve Sarkisian and Kiffin face off.

The following week, on Nov. 21, Kiffin leads LSU into Knoxville against Tennessee, which also was jilted by Kiffin after one season in 2009.

Kiffin is one of six SEC coaches in new places: Pete Golding at Ole Miss, Will Stein at Kentucky, Ryan Silverfield at Arkansas, Alex Golesh at Auburn and Jon Sumrall at Florida.

Stein debuts in the SEC’s first league matchup on Sept. 12, when Alabama travels to Kentucky. There are two other marquee matchups that week, when Oklahoma travels to Michigan and Ohio State visits Texas. The following week, Alabama gets a home rematch against Florida State, who beat the Tide in Week 1 of the 2025 season, and Sumrall and Golesh meet in the first Florida-Auburn game on the Plains since 2011.

On Rivalry Week, Texas at Texas A&M remains on Friday, Nov. 27, but the Egg Bowl moves to Saturday, with Mississippi State facing Golding and Ole Miss in Oxford, along with the Iron Bowl, with Auburn visiting Alabama.

The new format also allows for some new fan experiences. On Sept. 26, Texas visits Neyland Stadium and Tennessee for the first time in history for a battle for UT supremacy. On Oct. 17, Kentucky visits Oklahoma for the first time in 46 years, and the Sooners travel to Mississippi State for their first-ever meeting. Texas A&M rekindles an old Big 12 rivalry against Oklahoma in Norman, the first time the two have met since 2011.

In order to work out the new scheduling rules, some teams will play road games for a second straight year against the same team, like Arkansas, which returns to Texas, and Texas A&M, which returns to Missouri.

The additional conference game has limited the amount of programs playing smaller teams in nonconference matchups in Week 12, traditionally a tune-up game before rivalry week. This year, there are just four such games on Nov. 21: Alabama (UT-Chattanooga), Auburn (Samford), Ole Miss (Wofford) and Mississippi State (Tennessee Tech).

The league also sought to preserve three annual rivalries for each team, with the remaining six games rotating among the remaining schools. Each team will face every other SEC program at least once every two years and every opponent in a home and away over a four-year span.

As part of the restructured schedule, the league said each school will be required to schedule at least one Power 4 opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Notre Dame.

The top two teams in league standings based on winning percentage will play in the SEC Championship in Atlanta on Dec. 5.