The Long Con
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Governmental departments start spending money on B as they finish with A because they want to spend all the money in the budget. This is so they'll receive at least as much allocated to that department in the following year.
In private enterprise, each expenditure is evaluated on its own merits. A savings in one area doesn't free up resources to spend on another unless the secondary opportunity can be justified on its own merits.
Free agency works for football and basketball because the bidding process for proven talent is fair. All teams have a reasonably equitable chance of bidding for proven talent.
The economic landscape of baseball is different. The higher revenue teams bid up the price of proven talent to levels that make it unwise for the lower revenue teams to participate. The merits of bidding on a given player are reduced because the relative value of that proven talent against the pricing is out of line.
Baseball isn't going to address the disparity of revenues sufficient to make this bidding process similar to football or basketball. The baseball players' union isn't going to agree to abandon the free agency concept. Baseball isn't going to abandon the private ownership of teams and instead have the public of communities own shares (like the Green Bay Packer model). Do not expect the federal government to step in and try to remedy. Owners of baseball teams cannot be expected to stage a coup because they're enjoying the financial benefits of above average returns.
The only participants who come out on the short end are the fans of lower revenue teams. If this situation were deemed illegal, it would be referred to as the long con.