That is an opinion, what is the amount that you want them to spend. They were up to $160m, now should they have right sized the payroll, I get if you disagree with that. They did pony up money for Mauer and Puckett before them. Quite honestly I don't think Ryan wanted to spend on free agents, he was more risk averse, and could identify talent better than the current group could.
But we don't know what the conversations were, so to say they won't spend money is an opinion, the only way it becomes close to fact is if you put a number behind it and say you know that the GM or President of Baseball Operations was denied the ability to spend that amount.