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Mike O'Connor hasn't picked up a baseball all winter, and thanks to elbow surgery in November, he won't be able to compete for a spot in the Washington Nationals' rotation this spring, but the left-hander can't complain too much.

This time last year, the native of Ellicott City, Md., hadn't pitched above Single-A, was delivering packages for D.C.-area fundraising companies, and wondering about his future in baseball.

"It's a lot different from last year," said O'Connor, who despite his injury has emerged as one of the faces of the Nationals during a week-long caravan tour of the area. "I just think back to what I was doing last year. I was working all offseason trying to make money, doing baseball camps and working during the day."

Working--and wondering--he said.

O'Connor, 26, was a seventh-round draft pick of the Montreal Expos out of George Washington in 2002 and had pitched in Single-A Potomac in 2005. He was slated to pitch in Double-A in 2006 until a late-spring promotion to Triple-A.

The majors were only a short hop away, and he made his debut April 29 against the St. Louis Cardinals and didn't allow an earned run in five innings.

Through June, he was the Nationals' most reliable starter, sporting a deceiving 3-5 record and a solid 3.77 ERA.

That's when his elbow started to hurt. It was an intermittent pain, and being a rookie eager to hold onto a spot in the starting rotation, O'Connor didn't tell anyone about the pain.

But it affected his control more than anything, he said. His biting curveball didn't bite as much, and he couldn't locate his fastball as he'd been able to early in the season.

"I kind of felt like there was something that wasn't right," O'Connor said. "It wasn't normal to have that pain. Sometimes it'd be OK but start after start it's a thing that builds up, and I wasn't comfortable like I should have been. By the middle of the season in July, I had nothing."

His numbers bear that out.

After June, he didn't win another game, was briefly demoted to Triple-A in July, and spent August on the disabled list. He returned in September, but never felt right. His ERA ballooned to 4.80, and after the season, he met with orthopedist James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala.