I don't mean to be a jerk but that is a weak league to be honest. There is no reason not to fix holes and make improvements in your team at all times. At the IV level, a lot of teams are just one or two players away from winning the league. If you focus on improving those terrible(no offense) game ratings, you could have an opportunity to win, and if/not set yourself up to win the next year. But you have to believe you are going to win games and manage accordingly.
I turned my team around with basically a core of three players that I acquired and then trained, then I just built around them and had confidence in myself and my team to win games, and that was a 5th place team turning around and winning the league. You act as if you are in a borderline III league where you are hopeless and might as well just scrap the team. I'm in a bad spot now because I'm outgunned by most teams, but I'm already planning the blueprint to improve my team, certainly not going to "scale back salaries". That's just nonsense. I need to increase my salaries, not go backward.