Growing up, New York Mets pitching prospect and Washington native Conner O’Neil played baseball with his brother Spencer, two years his senior. They both loved baseball from an early age, but Conner describes Spencer as always being the more talented one. At Southridge High School in Kennwick, Washington, Spencer, a left-handed hitting outfielder, was considered one of the most talented and sought-after high school baseball players in the country, and appeared to have a bright future ahead of him, while Conner fell more under the radar.

With Spencer already playing at Central Arizona College, Conner walked on as an unknown Freshman without a scholarship. He pitched in fourteen games that year, eight of which were starts, and came away with solid results, posting a 3.06 ERA with 10.34 K/9.

The next year in 2015, both Spencer and Conner were offered scholarships by California State University, Northridge (CSUN), so they both transferred there for the 2014-2015 school year. This is when Conner really started to excel and his baseball career took off. Pitching in mostly a relief role, he put up a dominant 1.89 ERA along with 9.29 K/9 and 2.61 BB/9, collecting twelve saves.

Spencer, unfortunately, dealt with a back injury that hindered his performance and ultimately required him to receive surgery and have to end his playing days. Despite things not turning out quite the way he planned, Spencer ultimately found success as he turned his attention to his studies and graduated CSUN with a Bachelor of the Arts in liberal studies.

Conner, meanwhile, continued to pitch for CSUN in 2016 as primarily a reliever. He put in another impressive campaign that year, pitching to a 3.07 ERA with 10.74 K/9 and ten saves. His excellent performance prompted the Detroit Tigers to draft him in the 32nd round of the 2016 MLB Draft, but Conner made the decision to turn that offer down and stay at CSUN for his senior year.

O’Neil was used strictly as a reliever in 2017, posting a 2.70 ERA and 11.34 K/9 with seven saves, establishing himself as the CSUN all-time saves leader with more total saves than any previous pitcher in the history of the school. The Mets then drafted him in the 7th round that year, and he of course accepted the offer.

Pitching in the low minors, O’Neil has continued to impress, picking up right where he left off in college. He posted a 3.28 ERA in 19 games with 10.2 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in Brooklyn right after being drafted, and had a 2.86 ERA with 11.5 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 this past season in 27 games for Columbia.

O’Neil is not an overpowering pitcher, with a fastball that sits in the upper 80s to lower 90s, but he features a very effective high-70s slider that can miss bats. He also has a good sinking changeup, and a developing curveball as well. He has shown a good ability to command all of his pitches, a skill which has improved between his college days and now. Unlike many other pitchers who try to blow their fastball past everybody, O’Neil throws more breaking balls than fastballs to get hitters out.

Coming off a strong season, I got the chance to speak with him about his career and the upcoming season.

MMN: Hey Conner, thanks for offering your time to speak to me today.

O’Neil: Yeah, no problem.

MMN: So what have you been doing this offseason to prepare for the upcoming season?

O’Neil: In the offseason I typically have to make my money, so I actually work at LuLu Lemonade now. And I do that during the day, work out at night, sometimes vice versa, but you know we don’t make much in the season so I gotta kind of stack up my money in the offseason.

MMN: Did you pitch from an early age and what other positions did you play?

O’Neil: Yeah, I started pitching when I was eight years old. I was kind of a chubby kid, so I played first base and right field. Not too much agility there but towards the end of my high school career, I was pretty much just a pitcher usually.

MMN: Growing up, did you idolize any MLB players or teams?

O’Neil: Not really, I was always just kind of like a fan of watching. I liked watching Felix Hernandez, Andy Pettitte, and David Ortiz during his mid-2000s years. Those are the guys that I liked, I liked hitters and pitchers.

MMN: Are there any pitchers who you model your game after today?

O’Neil: I’d say probably Zack Greinke, he’s the closest, more as of late than early on in his career when he was throwing 96. Now he’s upper-80s, low-90s, and kind of uses all of his pitches really well.

MMN: When did you know that you wanted to play professional baseball?

O’Neil: Well I always knew that I wanted to do it, I just never knew that I would get the opportunity. I was pretty under the radar in high school and early on in college, so it was always a lofty goal of mine but a goal nonetheless. And I was able to kind of make it happen over a long period of time.

MMN: So getting into your collegiate career, why did you make the decision to transfer to CSUN after one year at Central Arizona College?

O’Neil: So Central Ar’ is a ju-co, I didn’t have a scholarship. Then I walked on, and my brother was at my school with me at Central Arizona, and he committed to play at CSUN for his upcoming junior year, and it was gonna be my upcoming sophomore year, and they ended up offering me a scholarship as well, so I decided to just tag along with him and make sure it was all easy with my parents, to be able to play with him for a couple more years.

MMN: Cool. So your brother Spencer was one of the most sought-after high school baseball players in the country, but his baseball career was cut short by a back injury. Was it hard for you to see your brother not be able to play baseball with you anymore?

O’Neil: It wasn’t hard emotionally, it was just sort of disappointing knowing that he was, you know, the more talented one growing up, and we never really got to see his full potential because of his injury. But you know, he’s happy now, but it’s still a letdown.

MMN: Cool, so after you were drafted by the Tigers in the 32nd round in 2016, why did you make the decision to not sign and return to college for your senior year?

O’Neil: I loved where I was at, I loved playing with my best friend. I wasn’t offered a life-changing amount of money, it wasn’t really an organization that I was all that familiar with, so it just made a lot more sense to go back and get my degree and hope that I got drafted the next year.

MMN: So you set the CSUN saves record, which is pretty cool. How did your experience at CSUN prepare you for the rigors of pro ball?

O’Neil: I would say mostly the fall in college, which is the same as a lot of guys who decided to go to school and sign out of high school, and just the falls in college are an absolute grind, from workouts to class to practice, study hall. So when I could compare like a fifteen-day road trip to that, I would take the fifteen-day road trip any day of the week. College really helped put things in perspective for what a grind actually is.

MMN: So I read that unlike most pitchers, you throw your breaking ball more often than your fastball. What’s your strategy behind doing that?

O’Neil: Hitters like fastballs, and they don’t like sliders. If you’re a guy that is able to throw your offspeed for a strike, and you don’t throw 95-plus, that’s gonna give you a fighting chance. If you go, you know, low-90s, and that’s all you can do, you’re probably gonna get [hit around] a little bit. So that’s just me sort of adjusting to every level I’m at, and that seems to be what works best at the higher levels for me.

MMN: Can you give me a quick scouting report on yourself for fans who may not know much about you?

O’Neil: You know, low-90s, a lot of sliders, a lot of changeups. A lot of strikes. But yeah, not too — want to heat with anything, just trying to go out there and try to do my job.

MMN: Last question, what are your main goals for the 2019 season?

O’Neil: Same as always: Stay consistent, stay healthy, one strikeout an inning, and hope to get promoted!

MMN: Awesome, thanks again for your time and good luck this season.

O’Neil: Alright boss, no problem.