See MiLB's New Teams For 2025: Spartanburgers & Clingstones

Before the 2021 realignment of the minor leagues, there was semi-regular change throughout the country thanks to the biennial affiliation shuffle. This process allowed teams to change affiliations every two seasons, leading to a lot of new names and logos.

Longer player development licenses in the new era of the minor leagues have meant little to no movement since 2021. Now, that’s about to change.

The 2025 season will see the debut of two new clubs: the Columbus Clingstones (Double-A Braves) and the Hub City Spartanburgers (High-A Rangers). Columbus will replace Atlanta’s current Southern League affiliate (the Mississippi Braves) in Pearl, Miss., while Hub City (aka Spartanburg, S.C.) will replace Texas’ current Low-A affiliate (the Down East Wood Ducks) in Kinston, N.C. and then flip levels with the Hickory Crawdads, the club’s current High-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League.

Though Down East will lose its affiliated team, baseball in Kinston will not miss a beat. The Frontier League announced on Sept. 17 that it would add the team for the 2025 season. The team’s new name will be the Bird Dawgs, and the new logo features a not-so-subtle jab at the team’s past.

New teams bring new logos, so here’s a look at the art set to adorn all sorts of new jerseys and merchandise. Let’s take a look!

Hub City Spartanburgers

Parent Club: Rangers
Level (League): High-A (South Atlantic)
Description: “Similar to someone from Texas calling themselves a Texan or someone from New York saying they are a New Yorker, a person that calls Spartanburg home is a Spartanburger, and a group of people from Spartanburg are Spartanburgers. We couldn’t think of a more appropriate name than to call ourselves the thing that we are most proud to be, and that is SPARTANBURGERS!”

Columbus Clingstones

Parent Club: Braves
Level (League): Double-A (Southern)
Description: “Not only is the clingstone cute and tasty, it’s also very stubborn as it clings to the pit of the peach,” he said. “Much like our ballclub’s going to cling to the community here in Columbus. They’ve had a lot of different iterations of Minor League Baseball here, but it’s never been set up to succeed like this, with the commitment by the city, Diamond Baseball Holdings and, of course, having the Atlanta Braves (as an affiliate).”

Down East Bird Dawgs

Parent Club: N/A
Level (League): Independent (Frontier)
Description: N/A

Oklahoma City Comets

Parent Club: Dodgers
Level (League): Triple-A (Pacific Coast)
Description: “We wanted our new name and brand to be something that reflects Oklahoma’s rich baseball history and our affiliation with the Dodgers but is also uniquely ours and embraces the future of our city and state,” said Oklahoma City Comets President/General Manager Michael Byrnes. “Mickey Mantle — the Commerce Comet —is an iconic baseball figure for our state, our city, our team and our ballpark. In addition, the OKC Comets name and different marks that display images of space suggest a look toward the future and enables us to have a bit of fun bringing our new identity to life for our fans.”

Knoxville Smokies

Parent Club: Cubs
Level (League): Double-A (Southern)
Description: “With the upcoming move to Knoxville, it is imperative to embrace our new home, while maintaining the Smokies brand,” Boyd Sports president Chris Allen said. “It is our desire that the new logo honors the city of Knoxville and the rich tradition of Smokies Baseball.”