It’s been a slow news year in terms of official minor league baseballs. As predicted, what news we do have comes from an indy league, or more accurately, one of the MLB Partner Leagues.

The Pioneer League moved away from Rawlings as its official supplier back in 2021; a strange move for an MLB Partner considering that MLB purchased Rawlings in 2018. You’ll recall that the Atlantic League, another Partner League, also uses OT Sports baseballs.

Now the league has gone back to Rawlings for its game balls, with a bit of a twist. While the OT Sports PBL ball was a great design, from the mixed fonts on the league stamp to the multi-colored laces, the new ball resembles an official MLB ball more than the generic MiLB baseballs in use by affiliated leagues since 2021, as the Pioneer League logo has been replaced on the south panel with the MLB logo. A game-used sample is below:

This prompts a couple of questions: Why the switch? Perhaps to save money; the PBL went with OT Sports due to the high cost of Rawlings baseballs but now that MLB is providing the balls, that cost would seem to be zero; and will MLB supply the other Partner Leagues as well? There is no indication yet that that’s the case but we’re keeping an eye out. Stay tuned!

-Tony Baseballs