Texas Rangers Officially Make Minor League Affiliate Change For 2025

The Texas Rangers have formally announced that their High-A affiliate will be moving for the 2025 season.

The Hub City Spartanburgers Official Team Store is now open in downtown. On June 11, 2024 officials held an opening event at the store in downtown Spartanburg and invited the public to come in and see the official line of team merchandise. Devon Gerber, the storeÕs merchandise manager, talks about the gear fans can buy at the store. / ALEX HICKS JR./SPARTANBURG

The Texas Rangers formally announced that their High-A minor-league affiliate will move to Spartanburg, S.C. for the 2025 season.

MiLB.com reported two months ago that the Rangers were expected to make the move. The team had already announced its name and mascot, as it will be called the Hub City Spartan Burgers.

At the time, it was believed the team would simply move into the same Class A slot as the Rangers’ current affiliate, the Down East Wood Ducks. But the Rangers’ formal announcement has the Hickory Crawdads, currently the Rangers’ High-A affiliate, moving to the Class A level.

So, the Crawdads will play in the Carolina League next season while the Spartan Burgers will play in the South Atlantic League.

The @Rangers will swap affiliates between the Carolina & Sally Leagues starting in 2025

The relocating @GoWoodDucks as the @Spartanburgers_ will now be the High A team in the South Atlantic League

The @HickoryCrawdads will fill the void in the Single A Carolina League https://t.co/GdmrjVLhFA pic.twitter.com/hjFU0nnB3l

— Minor League Promos (@MiLBPromos) July 23, 2024

The Rangers’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates will remain unchanged. The Frisco Roughriders will remain in the Texas League while the Round Rock Express will remain in the Pacific Coast League.

With the move the players for Hub City will get a new facility. The city is building Fifth Third Park, a downtown facility that is under construction and will be ready next April for the season opener.

Spartanburg has been a home to minor league baseball before, but not since 1995 when it was the home of the Philadelphia Phillies’ Class A affiliate.

Per a previous story on the team, their colors will be navy blue, bright green, red, brown and yellow. A hamburger will be the team’s primary logo and instead of wearing a baseball hat it will wear a train conductor’s hat, reaching back to the city’s roots.

The team will be called Hub City because it is Spartanburg’s nickname. At the start of the 20th century, Spartanburg’s city limits were the shape of a circle and the railroad lines that connected the city to the rest of the state resembled a hub.