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That's why you need STARS to go with your scrubs.
I agree, overpaying generic bats on the wrong side of 30 with multi-year contracts is a bad plan generally.  But having a bunch of scrub-payments (ie, minimum wage guys) only helps you if you can fit them in around the production you already have.
Ackley counts as a scrub currently because he's only making a million dollars (or whatever - he's not minimum wage because of his major-league contract that he signed as the #2 pick).  Same with Smoak.
But the "Star" payroll bracket is Ichiro, Figgins, Bradley, etc for this year.  THOSE cannot be your star payments, not with these seasons.  If your stars are Prime Olerud, Prime Edgar, etc, then you can try to find a scrub named Cameron to fill the CF hole.  If Cameron has to carry the offense, you're outta luck. 
What we're paying Felix is not hurting us.  Getting zero production from the other 50 million is killin us.  But we couldn't have just said, "eh, run with 21 year old Liddi at 3rd last year, and let Mike Wilson play LF while Silva stays on the team, and 170 K Greg Halman should take over in RF..." because that doesn't work either.  Can't just promote all of Tacoma to the majors and tell them to go for it.
We don't have enough prospects to pull that off.  Almost no one does.  The Royals had one of the best blue-chip systems known this year - they're getting crushed, and half their team is gonna hit free agency while the other half matures enough to help.  So the positions you DO lock down need to be as close to guaranteed production as you can make them, and the rotating positions will hopefully be ones that you have several options at to get a better chance of hitting 21 at the blackjack table.
LF as a rotating option this year hasn't worked out yet - we've thrown half-a-dozen options at it and found...well, maybe Carp.  I want him to get a real shot.  If it's not him, then it's no one and we need to fill it with blue-chip trade or a high-dollar Star with Star production, because we don't have other realistic corner OF options coming up any time soon. 
But the answer to the age problem can't be "only ever promote from within, never sign free agents" because there will be holes you don't have internal solutions for.  Get the youngest, best free agents (or already-producing trade pieces) you can and count on needing farm production to offset the decline years at the end of their contracts.
If you need civics as stopgaps, then sign them for Kennedy-like short seasons or on the cheap.
But that's all the more reason I would be interested in Fielder this offseason to be a Star-producer paid a star salary, rather than find the next Bradley/Cust/Figgins for half that price and then cry later when the fall over the age-related cliff.
~G