NASHVILLE — Ever since the Lowell Spinners became a casualty of Minor League Baseball’s contraction in 2020, hope has lingered that the franchise could one day make a return. Local and state officials have worked to help make that a reality, and the Red Sox have notably refused to close the door on the possibility.

Yet while needed renovations are coming to LeLacheur Park, the prospect of a Red Sox affiliate returning to Lowell seems to be dimming.

Since the Spinners folded nearly four years ago, LeLacheur Park has sat mostly vacant. The 25-year-old facility continues to host the UMass Lowell baseball team, but lacking either a full-time minor league affiliate or even an independent club, the park has fallen into a state of disrepair.

That may soon change. In July 2022, the City of Lowell agreed to sell LeLacheur Park to the UMass Building Authority for $1 million, effectively handing control of the facility to UMass Lowell. The deal also calls for the university to invest up to $3 million into the property over five years, though UMass President Marty Meehan said at the time he expected to make an initial investment of $5-7 million to cover deferred maintenance and needed improvements.

Meehan also said he envisions the reinvigorated LeLacheur Park as the centerpiece of UMass Lowell’s East Campus redevelopment, and that a larger renovation could be possible if the new East Campus generates sufficient private investment. The ultimate hope is to attract a new professional club, ideally a Red Sox affiliate.

According to Jonathan Strunk, UMass Lowell’s executive director for Communications Strategy, the deal closed this past April and renovation plans are now being developed.

“We completed some small, but important, repairs focused on building code compliance to ensure things were good to go for our 2023 baseball season,” Strunk wrote in an email to The Herald this week. “But the larger work articulated by the agreement is still in the early planning stages.”

Strunk said plumbing fixtures and fire alarms received repairs.

The upcoming renovations will make a difference, but they’ll fall far short of the upgrades needed to bring LeLacheur Park into compliance with Minor League Baseball’s new facility guidelines. An industry source said this week those costs could approach $40-50 million, an exorbitant price by any standard, but especially for a public university.

There are other issues as well, including how a full-season affiliate would share LeLacheur Park with a Division 1 college program and how parking would work while UMass Lowell’s classes are in session. Those weren’t a problem before because the Spinners were a short-season affiliate whose season was confined to UMass Lowell’s summer break.

But the biggest problem of all? Time may not be on Lowell’s side.

The only Red Sox affiliate which could conceivably move to Lowell is the Salem Red Sox, Boston’s Low-A affiliate near Roanoke, Va. The Salem Red Sox were purchased from Fenway Sports Group last winter by Diamond Baseball Holdings, a deep-pocketed group that now owns three of Boston’s four affiliates and 29 clubs across Minor League Baseball, and after this season the club’s lease at Salem Memorial Ballpark is due to expire.

Theoretically that’s all good news for Lowell and would seemingly open the door for a potential relocation, but Diamond Baseball Holdings CEO Peter Freund said this week at the Winter Meetings that while no agreements have been reached, his group and Salem officials are actively in negotiations for a new lease.

“We don’t have an agreement but we’re committed to the Salem/Roanoke market, the Red Sox are committed and we’re going to do a great job to continue doing what we do there,” Freund said.

One way or another Diamond Baseball Holdings will have to invest money in the Low-A club’s facilities, as Salem Memorial Ballpark needs work as well. The trouble is, sources say the cost of bringing that facility up to speed will be far less than what it would cost to overhaul LeLacheur Park, and with the lease due to expire at season’s end, a decision must come soon.

Should a lease agreement with Salem come to fruition, it would effectively close the door on a Red Sox return to Lowell, at least any time in the near future.

That doesn’t mean baseball won’t eventually make a comeback in the Merrimack Valley. The Vermont Lake Monsters, a former New York-Penn League rival of Lowell’s, were also a victim of MiLB contraction and have since enjoyed a successful transition to the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. The Spinners could make a similar comeback as a summer collegiate or independent club, and the planned LeLacheur Park renovations could also open other new possibilities as well.

But as far as the Red Sox go, it’s looking like it might be game over.

For years, crowds packed LeLacheur Park in Lowell to watch the Lowell Spinners, an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. The facility continues to host UMass Lowell games in the spring. (Lowell Sun file photo)