Now Pitching for the New York Mets: Dorsey's Search's Mike O'Connor

Mike O'Connor, who grew up in Dorsey's Search, is back in the Major Leagues. But it took an injury to Pedro Beato, a former pitcher in the minor league system of the Orioles, for a spot to open up for O'Connor on the roster of the New York Mets.

"I think that is how most people get up here," O'Connor told Patch on Friday afternoon from his hotel near Citi Field in New York. "That is how it goes. That is just how this game is. You don't wish bad on anybody. But you have to be ready."

Beato, who saved 16 games last year for the Bowie Baysox, was placed on the 15-day disabled list earlier this week with right elbow tendinitis.

Reliever O'Connor, 30, was certainly ready. He pitched well in spring training in Florida with the Mets and was among the last cuts with the Major League team. The left-handed pitcher, who graduated from Mount St. Joseph's and George Washington University, was sent to Class AAA Buffalo of the International League at the end of spring training.

With Buffalo this season he was 2-1 with an ERA of 3.31 in 10 games. In 16.1 innings he allowed seven walks with 15 strikeouts.

Last year O'Connor was 5-2 with an ERA of 2.67 and six saves in 51 games out of the bullpen with Buffalo, the top farm club of the Mets.

O'Connor got a call Wednesday at about 3 p.m. from former Met Tim Teufel, his manager in Buffalo, and was told he had a flight in about 90 minutes to New York. "The manager called me and said you need to get to the field," said O'Connor, who was living about five minutes from the field in Buffalo.

O’Connor arrived around the second inning on Wednesday night when the Mets played host to the Giants. He was in uniform for the end of the game. He warmed up in the bullpen in the late innings Thursday night but was not needed as the Mets used two pitchers in a 5-2 win over the Giants.

The Mets began a series at home on Friday with the Dodgers. New York is also at home on Saturday and Sunday against the Dodgers before heading to Colorado for a series with the Rockies.

O'Connor, who was drafted by the Expos/Nationals out of GWU, last pitched in the big leagues with the Washington Nationals in 2008.

He endured a rough 2009 season in which he played for four different minor league teams, including two with the Nationals and stops with the top farm teams of the Kansas City Royals and San Diego Padres.

O'Connor said Friday he also had a sore back that year and was able to rest it between the time he was released by the Padres and before he was picked up by the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, based in Waldorf in the independent Atlantic League.

“It is exciting. It is as exciting as the first time,” O’Connor said. “I have been through a lot to get back here. I almost had to start over.”

The Mets are slated to begin a series at home on Friday with the Dodgers.

The Mets' new big league manager is Terry Collins, who was a field coordinator in player development in 2010 for New York and knew about O'Connor.

O’Connor was born in Dallas and moved with his parents to Dorsey's Search 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 scout Mike Toomey, a resident of Gaithersburg who played and coached at GWU. Toomey is now with the Royals as an assistant to general manager Dayton Moore, who played in college at George Mason.

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.

Taylor Buchholz, a pitcher for the Mets, said during a recent series in Washington against the Nationals that O'Connor was one of the last players cut in spring training. Now O'Connor and Buchholz are teammates with the Mets. New York is 13-18 and in last place in the east division of the National League, just behind the Nationals.