Thinking you can get a top FA at "rock bottom prices" shows naiveté or just plain ole stupidity.
I don't think it's that.
I think it's all one long con game aimed at convincing enough fans that they are making a serious effort to improve the team, and coming up just short makes them look better than not "trying" at all.
In the past, I wasn't sure if they actually believed Paxton, Kluber and Richards would lead them to respectability, but that was different than going after all the top fish, publically. Even then, they did not pretend to go for the best of the best like now. Back then, it was Eflin, Nate and the like- not Soto, Fried and Burnes.