Rawlings was sold off by its parent company, and MLB bought in:
“MLB is excited to take an ownership position in one of the most iconic brands in sports and further build on the Rawlings legacy, which dates back to 1887,” said Chris Marinak, executive vice president of strategy, technology and innovation for MLB, in a statement. “We are particularly interested in providing even more input and direction on the production of the Official Ball of Major League Baseball, one of the most important on-field products to the play of our great game.”
This gives MLB the opportunity to control the manufacture of the ball directly. They could, if they wish, control scoring by changing the characteristics of the ball (accusations of such go back decades).
Baseball as the major consumer of baseballs has always had control over the balls they buy with performance standards. Its written into each purchase order and payment is subject to inspection verifying compliance. Thats SOP in every sale. Some of those performance standards they write in would be much tighter tolerances than their own broad spec, and at present are at the top end (juiced) of their overly broad spec. Since there is little room for a COR increase they have somehow reduced drag to allow balls to travel further since drag is not specified in their official specs , nor are results in the 400 ft test which are done to verify performance
What it can do now is control information about baseballs production more easily and burn the skeltons in Rawlings closets (lol) showing their part in altering baseballs performance over the last 25 years . I suppose they can also profit from the balls they make and buy in Costa Rica and maybe park some of the profits in a offshore tax haven. The financial part is probably the main reason owners choose to enter the production business for balls and I assume basball gloves. Whats next? Bats?
So with MLB controlling fielding stats with statcast, which will likely have a significant say in who the future GG winners will be, and may now have a financial reason to want particular players who may sell more gloves than others to win the GG. Not saying thats going to happen but MLB seems to be controlling too much for conflict of interest not to cause some issues.