From the CBA:
The League will determine, in its discretion, a Player’s Salary Budget Charge according to the following formula, provided, however, that MLS retains discretion to lower a Player’s Salary Budget Charge in individual cases
Assuming I understand this (and other, similar passages) correctly, MLS can simply ignore a portion of a player’s or players’ salaries when calculating their cap hit. Sign Busquets for $4m yearly? MLS can say they’re lowering the budget charge to max TAM.
https://lemmy.world/post/1870374 This is a great breakdown to answer a few questions most people have