The Los Angeles Dodgers have won the last seven NL West titles, and they've claimed two of the last three pennants. Over that span, however, they have not managed to win the World Series. Even though the Dodgers are coming off a 106-win campaign in 2019, their NLDS loss to the Nationals may inform offseason to-do list. 

As it turns out, that to-do list may be quite ambitious. Here's what Jon Heyman tweets: 

"Dodgers are looking at Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg and Anthony Rendon. But while they can afford to go big, word is they have set valuations for each star and intend to remain disciplined."

Cole, Strasburg and Rendon are of course the top three free agents on the market, and Strasburg and Rendon -- late of the Nationals -- were of course central to the Dodgers' loss in the NLDS. Either Strasburg or Cole would give the Dodgers a terrifically imposing front of the rotation alongside Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler. Meantime, Rendon would likely necessitate a position switch for current Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, but that's an accommodation you make to get the likes of Rendon in the fold. 

The last part of Heyman's report, though, is the key. The Dodgers under Andrew Friedman have, despite their boundless resources, stressed greater payroll efficiency. Mostly that's meant operating with one eye on the luxury tax threshold. According to the latest estimations, the Dodgers have significant room under that threshold at the moment -- $45 million or so, according to the very excellent Cot's Contracts at Baseball Prospectus. Potentially, that's enough to afford one of those three big names. 

However, the "set valuations" part of Heyman's report is the unknown. Like every other team, the Dodgers have a dollar figure assigned to every free agent of interest. In the Dodgers' case, however, there may not be much flexibility in those valuations when it comes to responding to the markets for a given player. If, say, Cole winds up commanding more than the price tag they've attached to him, would Friedman and company rise to meet that figure? The way they've operated in recent years and the particulars of Heyman's report both suggest no. 

The Dodgers are going to be heavy favorites in the NL West no matter what they do this winter, but their unwillingness to spend at a level befitting their resources -- should that philosophy hold -- may prevent them from fielding the strongest roster possible. Consider the Dodgers' willingness to pay top-of-the-line prices this offseason one of the more compelling subplots around.