Tom, nobody knows what the horsefeathers you are talking about. But let's pretend we do for a minute. Recent history (the last 50 years) shows that teams out of contention trade MLB players for "the future". 1in 1984 The Cubs traded a young Joe Carter and Mel Hall for Rick Suttcliffe (just one example).
It's something teams do regularly. Now you can argue with the new playoff system many teams will not be looking to sell much or buy much. Or that too many teams are in contention that the market will be frozen. But that's a different argument.
You can also argue that the Cubs don't have much to sell that will bring back anything thing of value for the "future". But that's a different argument too.
So, it may not be a binary outcome (your strawman), but let's not pretend that we live in a world that doesn't have teams selling off veterans for the future.