Exeter Chiefs have confirmed that 11 players have left the club ahead of the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership season.
The wage cap was cut by £1.4m, to £5m ahead of the 2022/23 season.
“The majority of them still coming in are still salaries that you would expect to be paying if it was a £6.4m market,” Baxter said.
“There doesn’t really seem to be, at this stage, that kind of realisation that it’s a big drop-off.”
Under the rules clubs have a cap of £5m, plus £600,000-worth of academy credits, and two players whose salaries sit outside the cap.
From next season clubs will only be able to have one player whose wages do not count towards the cap, meaning extra costs they will have to account for.
“It’s probably a bit more than a 25% drop off when you start talking about second marquee players disappearing next season if they’re not under contract, it’s markedly down more than a 25% reduction in the salary cap.
“At the moment that does make the Premiership way less competitive when it comes to southern hemisphere signings, as an example.
“Some of the base salary levels in New Zealand and Australia now are actually comparable to what we could probably offer, whereas before in the £6.4m cap you could be very competitive on base level contracts.”
Exeter Chiefs’ confirmed departing players are:
Don Armand – retiring
Sam Hidalgo Clyne – Benetton Rugby
Jack Walsh – Ospreys