From 1996 to 2019, the Lowell Spinners were a Short Season Class-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox in the New York–Penn League. The Spinners did not survive Major League Baseball’s 2020 reorganization of Minor League Baseball, which saw the number of affiliated teams reduced from 160 to 120. While many of the teams that lost their affiliated status joined the ranks of independent professional or collegiate summer level leagues, some, like the Spinners, simply went away.
After six seasons in baseball limbo, a new ownership group announced that the Spinners will return to their former home in Lowell, Massachusetts, as a member of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. The announcement included two logos—a new anthropomorphic spool of yarn, gritting with a sewing needle in its mouth, and a reprisal of a classic 2009 mark that features the letter S spun from a spool of yarn.
The Spinners’ identity is based on Lowell’s history as a central player in the textile industry, in which raw cotton is turned it into cloth or yarn. While the textile industry shifted to southern states in the early 1900s, its presence can still be felt in Lowell—19th-century textile mills, now repurposed as apartments or office buildings, are visible beyond the outfield wall at Edward E. LeLacheur Park.
The Lowell Spinners last played a baseball game on September 2, 2019, a 4-2 win over the Connecticut Tigers. Spinners baseball will make its triumphant return to Lowell when the Futures League begins its 2026 season in May.
