Micah Owings, since being demoted by the Cincinnati Reds (although technically Owings is still property of the team), is sort of like that term “man without a nation.”

It is obvious that Cincinnati will eventually release him. Unfortunately for the team, there is very little interest in the 27-year old righthander. so what gives?

According to John Fay over at the Cincinnati Enquirer, Owings is drawing little interest probably due to the fact that he is arbitration-eligible next year and represented by Scott Boras.

Assuming the Reds let Owings go (and they probably will), it will be interesting to see if a team will sign him to a contract. the best case scenario for Owings is that he signs a minor-league contract and hopefully work his way up the ladeder until he lands on the major league roster of whicheber team signs him.

The thing that will make this especially difficult is that Owings has posted ERAs of 4.30, 5.93, 5.34 and 5.40 during his four-year career. So if he discovers that he isn’t garnering much interest, that right there is reason enough.

The only other alternative I can think of is that Owings goes Rick Ankiel and rediscover his batting stroke. Think about it.

In 184 at-bats, he’s batting .293 (Mike-Leake numbers) with 9 HR and 34 RBI (a HR every 20.4 AB – impressive for a pitcher). So it may be something he might want to think about.

But for now, Owings’ career is in limbo and some clarity should take place some time this week.