After spending eight seasons as a player, player/coach and coach with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, Jeremy Owens will manage the Atlantic League baseball club in 2016.
Owens was an 8th round draft pick of the San Diego Padres in 1998, but he never reached the major leagues. He remained in their organization until 2002, advancing as high as Triple-A. He spent two seasons in the Boston Red Sox organization before making his first foray into independent league baseball.
In 2005, Owens played center field for the Atlantic League champion Somerset Patriots. Ten years later, I’ve still never had the opportunity to watch a better defensive center fielder in person on a regular basis. During that magical year, Owens hit .290 with 24 home runs, 77 RBI and 29 stolen bases.
Owens got another shot in affiliated baseball with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization in 2006, but by 2008 he was back in the Atlantic League to patrol the outfield for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. He was a regular in their lineup through 2013 and had been named team captain in 2009. Owens is in the franchise’s top 10 in almost every offensive category.
The Blue Crabs’ managerial vacancy came about when Stan Cliburn accepted a job managing the new New Britain Bees Atlantic League franchise.
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