Ellicott City's O'Connor Makes his Pitch with Mets

Mike O’Connor, who grew up in Ellicott City, made his Major League debut with the Washington Nationals in 2006 and made his last appearance in The Show two years later.

Now the left-handed pitcher is trying to get back to the big leagues with the New York Mets. He was invited to spring training as a non-roster player and reported to Port St. Lucie, FL, last month.

“Maybe I have a chance to make this team, or if not, leave a good impression in case something comes up later in the season,” O’Connor said in a telephone interview with Patch on March 14.

Last year he pitched for the Buffalo Bison, the Mets' top farm club, and was 5-2 with six saves and an impressive ERA of 2.67 in 51 games out of the bullpen. He threw 70.2 innings and allowed just 65 hits and 17 walks with 70 strikeouts.

The season went much better than 2009, when O’Connor played for four minor league teams and was property of the Nationals, Padres and Royals. He also spent a few weeks with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of Waldorf in the independent Atlantic League before hooking on with the Mets prior to the 2010 season. “Last year I signed late and did not go to big league camp. I was fighting to make the Triple A team,” said O'Connor. Now he may be fighting for a big league spot.

In his first four spring training games this month, O’Connor was  0-0 and did not allow a run while allowing just two hits in three innings, with three strikeouts. He faced two batters in a home spring game against the Washington Nationals in Port St. Lucie, FL, earlier in March.

“I feel like I am pitching good. I have not thrown a whole lot yet,” said O’Connor, who lives in Germantown in the winter. “I have not had any health problems the last two years. That has not been an issue. It will be interesting to see how it goes the next few weeks.”

O'Connor had some arm trouble during the 2008 season that limited him to 17 minor league games and five in the majors.

Said scout Mike Toomey, who signed O'Connor out of George Washington University, "Now Mike is healthy. That is the big thing."

The Mets last spring training game is March 30 in Port St. Lucie against the Florida Marlins. The Mets open regular-season play April 1 at the Marlins.

If he does not make the Mets' Opening Day roster, O’Connor feels he will be with Buffalo to start this year. “That is the fallback plan,” said O’Connor, who played winter ball in the Dominican Republic last fall. The Mets' new big league manager is Terry Collins, who was a field coordinator in player development in 2010 for New York and knows about O'Connor.

O’Connor, 30, was born in Dallas and moved with his parents to the Dorsey Hall neighborhood when he was in elementary school. He attended Thunder Hill Elementary and Dunloggin Middle School before attending Mount St. Joseph in Baltimore.

O’Connor was then a standout at GWU before he was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the seventh round in 2002. He was signed by Toomey, a resident of Gaithersburg who played and coached at GWU and will be inducted into a scouts' Hall of Fame in South Carolina this season. Toomey is now with the Royals.

O'Connor worked his way up through the minor leagues with Montreal/Washington and went 3-8 with an ERA of 4.80 in 21 games, with 20 starts, with the Nationals in 2006. He was in the minor leagues the next season, then got back to Washington for part of the 2008 season. That year with the Nationals he was 1-1, 13.00 in five games, with one start. He was the minor league pitcher of the year with the Nats in 2005.