Modesto Roadsters Replace Modesto Nuts

After the Modesto Nuts played their final season in the California League in 2025 the Pioneer League stepped in and announced to have a team in the former affiliated town. Yesterday that club presented its moniker for the 2026 Pioneer League season. |

The Modesto Nuts were the Seattle Mariners’ farm team for the past eight seasons. At the end of the 2024 season, the city of Modesto announced it would lift the cooperation with the Mariners as the latter demanded the city to pay for the ballpark upgrades MLB is shoving down MiLB clubs’ throats. Modesto tried to keep the team as it asked the Mariners to contribute to the costs of the ballpark upgrades, but the MLB club simply refused. As a result, Modesto ended the cooperation as it could not afford to pay the $32 million that was needed to upgrade John Thurman Field.

Both parties agreed to keep the Nuts in Modesto for the 2025 season so the M’s had a home for their Single A farm team before it would move to San Bernadino in 2026 to fill the void that would be left by the Angels’ farm team that would move back to Rancho Cucamonga to fill the void the Dodgers would leave after the move of their farm team to a brand new ballpark in Ontario.

With the refusal of the Mariners to support the city of Modesto, seventy-nine years of history is erased at once. The club became part of the California League in 1946 and except for one year, 1965, the club was part of that league until the end of the 2025 season. In the first two seasons, the club was an independent part of the league, but from 1948 it was affiliated with a variety of MLB clubs. Even though the club wasn’t affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds, the Modesto club was named Reds twice: from 1946 – 1961 and from 1966 – 1974). Only twice, the club was named after a parent club: from 1962 – 1964 it was named Colts, and from 1975 through 2004 it was called the Modesto A’s. In 2005, the club adopted the name Nuts.

With the “independent” Pioneer League stepping in, Modesto won’t be without professional baseball in 2026.

The owner of the new team is Main Street Baseball, that also owns the Billings Mustangs (also in the Pioneer League), the Quad Cities River Bandits, and the Wilmington BlueRocks.

The base of the Pioneer League lies in the Northwest of the USA, mainly in the states of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Colorado. The league also has a team in Northern California and so far, Oakland was the most Southern team of the league. But that will change with the addition of Modesto.

A few days ago, the Modesto ball club announced that former MLB player and Gold Glove winner, J.T. Snow will be the team’s manager. Snow was bench coach with the Oakland Ballers after they replaced the Athletics as the latter moved to Sacramento.

But now to the new moniker and uniforms of the new team. Yesterday, the club unveiled its new name at the American Graffiti museum in Modesto. At first, the club mulled on adopting the name Glow Riders but it got a lot of flak. As a result, the club moved another direction and decided to name the new club Modesto Roadsters.

The Roadsters logo and name, which pay homage to the deep association the city of Modesto has with the 1973 movie American Graffiti, seems to be better aligned with what fans were expecting. American Graffiti, which was directed by Modesto native George Lucas, uses roadster cars and Modesto’s 1960s cruising culture as a framework for its story.

The new logo features a kit fox with clothes and greased back hair that one might have seen a high schooler wearing in the 1960s, driving a roadster car. Notably, the car’s license plate reads “CRUISER,” another team name that fans would have preferred over Glow Riders.

The new identity also features a stylized version of the Modesto arch, which bears the city’s official motto, “Water, Wealth, Contentment, Health.”

“This new team will be an integral part of Stanislaus County and the Central Valley for decades to come, so it was really important that we get the name exactly right,” said Roadsters owner Dave Heller. “After the Glow Riders were announced, we did a lot of listening and learned a lot about this community, its culture, and its people. I was blown away by the passion and the pride people here have for baseball, their team and their history. We owed it to them to hit a home run with the new primary identity, and with the Modesto Roadsters we’ve hit a grand slam!”

The new name incorporates the neon and bright colors of the American Graffiti diner culture, as well as the community’s history with -and love for – classic cars and classic music. It also incorporates the San Juaquin kit fox, an animal native to the region. The team’s primary colors are candy apple red, egg cream malt, and neon diner blue, in addition to orange and black.