The Dodgers do not look at their off-season acquisitions as a spending spree. Dodgers president Andrew Friedman sees the deep roster as a cost saving measure (emphasis added):

Most of all, he wanted to avoid a situation in which the club once again would have to make hefty additions at the midsummer trade deadline.

“It’s been my goal the last however many years — and I failed miserably at it — but my goal is to avoid ‘July to buy,’” Friedman said at last month’s winter meetings. “I do not want to buy in July. I feel like the more times I say it out loud, the better chance it has to actually be a thing.”

…

“Obviously things can happen, you never know,” Friedman added. “But that’s our game plan. To have a really talented team as we head into spring training, give that team a chance to jell and bond together, and not need to go to market in July when prices are two times what they are at other times.”

LATimes.com

Friedman ran the Rays brilliantly on a shoestring. Moving to Los Angeles, he adapted to a richer environment. He is not afraid to spend on stars, but still looks for bargains to balance the spending. Friedman uses every tool available to him; building talent from within, buying generational talent, probing the far reaches of the international amateur world, and identifying talent where no one else sees it. Very impressive.