That is probably true. It does not change the fact that it is bad for baseball that this happens. The NFL, NBA, and NHL don't let this happen. Salaries are a zero sum budget game. That is why age-based free agency is the solution here. It is kind of how the NHL does it and what happens there is that the better players get locked up into deals long before they hit free agency and there is arbitration for everyone else. There should be zero gain attained by holding better players out of the game.
Now they still need to figure out a way to pay young players more, but that is a different issue. Again, since budgets are a zero-sum game, there should be an easy solution to this (arbitration earlier, better minimum pay so there is less difference between a 2nd year player and a 4th year player). Baseball should figure out ways to make their sport better. The fact that they could not agree on the DH which both sides want is a bad open for the next CBA.
