DALLAS — “We’re going to look at everything,” Hal Steinbrenner said Wednesday at Major League Baseball’s quarterly owners meetings.

Those words might very well hold up in a courtroom. There’s no cost in “looking at,” say, David Price or Ben Zobrist as the Yankees work to improve their club this winter.

Yet an interview session with the Yankees’ managing general partner left little doubt that, for now, this winter’s plan is similar to last winter’s, only with less financial wiggle room — and, to be fair, fewer holes to fill.

“I think another starting pitcher is something we’re certainly going to look at,” Steinbrenner said. “All of the other positions, I think we’re fairly strong.”

When a reporter asked Steinbrenner whether his team needs an ace starting pitcher, he brought up Masahiro Tanaka’s name and said, “If he’s healthy, we’ve got an ace.” He then mentioned Luis Severino, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Pineda, Adam Warren (“We’ll probably see more of him in a starting role”) and CC Sabathia, for whom he offered kind words of support in the left-hander’s battle with alcoholism.

Here’s betting that, if the Yankees do add a starting pitcher, it’ll be via trade, just like when general manager Brian Cashman acquired Eovaldi from Miami last December.

The Yankees have become far more predictable since Steinbrenner succeeded his father even before George’s passing in 2010. Their offseason investments are predicated largely on how much money they have coming off the books, and just $12.5 million came off the books upon the 2015 season’s conclusion. They take their draft picks very seriously when it comes to pursuing free agents who would cost them a pick as compensation, as they believe strongly that building a team around homegrown players will decrease costs and make the team more likable to fans.

And they still carry the goal of lowering their payroll below baseball’s luxury-tax threshold. That won’t happen in time for 2016 — the threshold remains $189 million, and the Yankees already have $183.8 million in actual dollars committed (thanks, Baseball-Reference.com) with raises for arbitration-eligible players still to come — but a new collective bargaining agreement must be negotiated in time for the 2017 season, and that could give the Yankees a new target at which to aim.

“It might or it might not” increase, Steinbrenner said of the luxury-tax threshold. “All I know is what I’ve always said: I shouldn’t have to have a $200 million payroll to win the world championship. It’s been proven over and over again, right?

“The last couple of years, the money that has come off, we’ve had to put it back in. Fill voids because we haven’t had the young players to do it with. The guys that we picked up two years ago, the [Brian] McCanns and the [Jacoby] Ellsburys, they’ve been great. Glad we did it. A couple of years from now, the payroll situation will be different. I’ll have flexibility. We will be active on the free-agent market. We always are. But I’ve got other options.”

(Yes, The Post noted to Steinbrenner that Ellsbury was not “great” last season.)

Carlos Beltran’s and Mark Teixeira’s contracts conclude after 2016 and then Alex Rodriguez’s and Sabathia’s (assuming he avoids left shoulder problems next season to vest an option) after 2017.

Steinbrenner clearly hopes, with the upgrading of the farm system, he won’t need to put all of those dollars back into the team.

And that gets into protecting the Yankees’ draft picks. They’ll pick 22nd in 2016, and if you want another betting tip, don’t wager on them signing a free agent who will require the sacrifice of that pick.

“It’s important,” Steinbrenner said of retaining that pick. “If we’re going to have this balance [of veteran and young players] that I’m talking about, [if] we’re going to work to get under the threshold, which I’m certainly going to work to do as money starts coming off and we get out from underneath some of these eight-year deals, you’ve got to have those kids. If you’re picking in the top 15 to 20, it’s different than picking 50. We all know that.”

Last June, picking 16th overall, the Yankees selected UCLA right-hander James Kaprielian, who “hopefully we’ll see at the major league level as soon as the end of this season,” Steinbrenner said.

Two days ago, Steinbrenner said, he received his baseball operations team’s “pref list,” in which the evaluators rank and analyze the entire free-agent market. But prior to that, at last week’s general managers’ meetings, Cashman made a pair of trades, the bigger one of which landed outfielder Aaron Hicks and increased the possibility of a Brett Gardner deal.

Steinbrenner is far more excited talking about his own young players such as Severino, Greg Bird, Aaron Judge and Kaprielian than any free agents. That’s partly tactical, but also a reflection of how he feels the Yankees are most likely to return to their old perch.

They’ll look at everything. But they likely won’t be signing anyone to the sort of contract that will turn into another burden down the road.