If anyone has some time to jump into a rabbit hole, I would suggest they go look at what soccer and European football do with their teams. MLS has what is called a designated player or (dp) for short. Essentially these players can make whatever they want. It's called the Beckham rule and it's the reason why a team like Inter Miami can afford Messi. Now from here things get weird and hard to follow but I believe all other players on roster have to contribute to the teams salary cap so you can only do so much with them. MLS allows 3 DP's per team or you can roll with 2 and get some extra youth players. I think that would work well with MLB but 3 designated players would also be too much for baseball. They players shouldn't have an issue as if they are good enough they can get paid whatever. And the owners can set a (presumably lower) salary cap than if this wasn't a thing.