You can pencil this storied franchise’s name back in the lineup.
More than five years after the club folded following the reorganization of Minor League Baseball, the Lowell Spinners are poised for a return to the diamond.
Formerly the Short-Season Single-A affiliate of the Red Sox, the reconstituted Spinners have been reincarnated as members of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.
UMass Lowell and city officials introduced the club’s ownership group — and the revival of the Spinners name — in an announcement at UML’s Tsongas Center on Tuesday morning.
A letter of intent to bring a team to the Mill City was signed in July, but its owners and team identity weren’t known until this week.
These Spinners, the league’s seventh active franchise, will begin play in the upcoming 2026 season.
The new club will take the field at the former Spinners’ stomping grounds, LeLacheur Park.
The franchise agreement was officially announced in August by the Futures League and UMass Lowell, which purchased LeLacheur Park from the City of Lowell in 2022.
Futures League Commissioner Joe Paolucci said at that time he had high hopes the team would call Lowell home for the foreseeable future.
And that also appears to be the intention of the ownership group, composed of local businessmen Marc Deschenes and John Croteau.
The principal owner and chief baseball officer, Deschenes played baseball at UMass Lowell before embarking on a 13-year professional career. He was a 1995 draft choice of the Cleveland Indians and founded the Junior Spinners, a youth baseball organization now known as USA Prime.
Croteau, the chairman and CEO, is a successful businessman of 42 years in the technology industry and the former CEO of the Lowell-based MACOM.
The primary owners also have several limited partners, with at least one familiar name among the group — Johnny Damon, a member of the 2004 Red Sox World Series champions.
When they confirmed that the Spinners brand remained available, Deschenes and Croteau moved forward with their plans to adopt that iconic name.
The new owners’ goals are both straightforward and ambitious.
“The biggest thing for me is trying to go out there and bring competitive baseball back to Lowell in the summertime,” Deschenes told the Boston Herald.
He said the team’s roster will range from Division 3 college programs to Power 5 fixtures, and will look to draw from local clubs. “We’re building a team that will match the former Spinners level of play in the New York-Penn League, and we’re building a roster of top local talent.”
The team also announced that Kevin Graber will be its first manager. Currently the head coach at Phillips Andover Academy, Graber recently returned from a stint in the Chicago Cubs organization.
Deschenes said the club will play a 62-game schedule starting in late May, with 31 home games and 31 road games.
Established in 2011, the Futures League is a summer college baseball league geared towards local players. It features both returning college standouts and incoming freshmen.
As of 2025, league players have been drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft in six consecutive years, including No. 5 overall pick Liam Doyle this past summer.
Other big leaguers who previously played in the Futures League include New York Yankees standout pitcher Cam Schlittler, who handcuffed Red Sox hitters in the recent American League playoffs.
The revived Spinners will seek to build on the legacy established by the original franchise. Founded in 1996, those Spinners played 24 seasons as an affiliate of the Red Sox, and featured future Red Sox stars, including Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Kevin Youkilis and Jonathan Papelbon, among others.
The original Spinners played their final season in 2019, after which the affiliate fell victim to Major League Baseball’s reorganization of the minor leagues.
The Spinners will become the third former New York-Penn League team to join the Futures League, following the Vermont Lake Monsters and Norwich Sea Unicorns.
Credit for Landing a Futures League team should also go to UMass Lowell, which actively campaigned for a new summer tenant at LeLacheur Park.
“We’re obviously excited to bring baseball back to Lowell,” said UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen at the time of the August announcement.
Before the team begins its season in May, Chancellor Chen said there are plans to fix damage to the third-base concourse, among other priorities, before the venue opens its doors for full capacity, with a goal of having the stadium ready by May.
Deschenes also said the video board will be brought back to life at LeLacheur, along with many other structural upgrades to the facility.
Let’s hope fans in the Merrimack Valley and beyond can replicate the interest the original franchise engendered in its heyday.
As Deschenes alluded to at the Tuesday announcement, sellout crowds used to be the norm for Spinners home games.
Beginning with the 2000 season, the Spinners had 413 consecutive sellout crowds, a streak that ended after 11 seasons.
With all the pent-up demand that’s built since the original Spinners’ demise, sellouts at LeLacheur might become a common occurrence once more.
With that in mind, single-game tickets and season ticket packages are already available for pre-order.