Maybe you could start with combining some of that cash with a trade offer to acquire someone. I've found even with difficulty at Hard / Favor Prospects that with a solid veteran (or blue chipper) and a great deal of cash I can get a team to offer up some possibilities to make the deal work. Once that negotiation phase is reached, I reach in and look at the above and beyond what they're offering. Yeah, most of the time I'll get a that trade will hurt our team response, but now and then I'll get a taker with the right amount of green on the palm. It also pays to look into areas that do not show up as weaknesses on their team. It seems a correlation, and some common sense, that a star won't be put up if there's not a B-star to step up and replace him.
Not that I don't agree with you the Free Agent response is frustrating. I lost a good+ catcher my first year of taking over my dynasty because of that comment and I took it personally. I've started adding notes during gameplay whenever I face him and his new team referencing my new catcher's play vs his that day and when possible rubbing his virtual face in how easily he was replaced. Damn ol' Cedric if he let's me down later in the year.
