GLENDALE, Ariz. — For three months, Andrew Friedman and his staff had a lot of theoretical discussions.

That mental exercise ended when the MLB lockout was lifted Thursday.

“Obviously, we had a lot of meetings leading up to the lockout ending and felt like we were incredibly prepared,” Friedman said Sunday afternoon at Camelback Ranch. “And then the bell rang and things are happening really quickly. Timing is playing out differently than how you anticipate — which we kind of expected.

“But it’s been (like) drinking out of a fire hose and I think it’s been activating that part of our brain, which had been dormant for a couple months. But it’s been great. The adrenaline’s there and the desire to keep doing what we can to put ourselves in the best position to win a championship.”

Things might be happening “really quickly.” But so far, the Dodgers have only made small moves on the fringes of their roster.

Veteran utilityman Hanser Alberto has agreed to a one-year contract with a club option for 2023. The 29-year-old Alberto has hit .292 with 17 home runs and a .725 OPS for the Orioles and Royals over the past three seasons while playing second and third base, shortstop and a little outfield.

Three relievers with big-league experience have also signed minor-league contracts with non-roster invitations to spring training — right-handers Reyes Moronta and Yency Almonte and left-hander Daniel Zamora.

Of the three, Moronta has the most interesting upside. The burly 29-year-old was a valuable piece of the Giants’ bullpen in 2018 and 2019, posting a 2.66 ERA with 149 strikeouts over 121 2/3 innings. But he suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery in 2019, missed all of 2020 and struggled in limited action last season.

Meanwhile, though, the Dodgers have been connected with two of the best hitters still available on the free-agent market — Freddie Freeman and Nelson Cruz.

“We’re having a lot of different conversations,” Friedman said, failing to tip his hand on anything. “Some, we’re adding to our offense, some where we’re augmenting our starting staff and where we’re adding to our ‘pen. I think, depending on fit, timing, there are scenarios where we could go any which way.

“But we are still in the mindset to add and continue to reinforce the group that we have in place.”

The 41-year-old Cruz — also reportedly connected to the Braves, Padres and Nationals in the new world of the universal DH — would represent a departure for the Dodgers. In their limited time with a DH (the shortened 2020 season and interleague road games), the Dodgers have preferred to rotate players through the position rather than have one player anchored in the spot. Cruz has played just seven innings in the field (at first base) since the 2019 season.

“We just don’t have any hard and fast rules,” Friedman said. “I think there’s obvious benefits to not having that (a single DH). But I also think there’s scenarios where it makes sense to. So much depends on how things play out. But I think having the flexibility to move guys around … there’s real added benefits to being able to rotate. That being said for the right bat, obviously, we would do it.”

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Freeman would be an even better fit for the Dodgers, giving them a left-handed bat to balance a heavily right-handed lineup and maintaining their flexibility. He would also impact the Dodgers’ payroll more than any other current free agent.

The new Collective Bargaining Agreement raises the Competitive Balance Tax threshold while also maintaining penalties for exceeding the threshold. The Dodgers are already up against this year’s CBT threshold ($230 million) but Friedman said the CBT changes will not affect the Dodgers’ moves.

“Not really,” he said. “We’ve talked about this a lot. I mean, our payroll a lot of times falls out of the talent we have, where they are in the system. We never look at our payroll in a static one-year way. It’s always looking at over kind of a rolling three-, four-year period.”