The Marlins are hiring Astros executive Oz Ocampo as an assistant general manager, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network.
Although the offseason hasn’t officially begun, Marlins general manager Kim Ng has been busy putting pieces together for non-playing roles. The Fish added Skip Schumaker to the dugout two days ago, replacing Don Mattingly as the manager. Now they will also have Ocampo on staff, bringing him over from Houston.
Ocampo has worn various hats in his career, starting out by acting as a scout for the Cardinals in the Dominican Republic. He then worked in the International Baseball Operations department of Major League Baseball before joining the Astros. He worked in Houston’s international scouting and player development department but left after 2019 to join the Pirates as a special assistant of player personnel. In February of this year, he returned to the Astros’ international scouting department.
At the time of Ocampo rejoining the Astros, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle noted that Framber Valdez, José Urquidy, Luis Garcia and Cristian Javier were all signed during Ocampo’s time with the organization. He adds that Ocampo wanted the Astros to sign Yordan Alvarez, who signed with the Dodgers but was later acquired by Houston in a trade. Baseball scouting departments are large entities that consist of many people, making it difficult to assign credit or blame to a single individual. Still, it’s apparent that Ocampo’s work is respected around the industry and there’s no doubting the fact that the Astros have a strong track record of international player development in recent years.
The Marlins are not an organization that spends at a high level, having not had an Opening Day payroll north of $100MM since 2017, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Given that they share a division with four clubs that have shown a much greater spending capacity, it’s very important that the Marlins succeed in terms of acquiring and developing younger and cheaper players. As Morosi notes, the hiring of Ocampo comes at a crucial time, with the Marlins opening a new academy in the Dominican Republic tomorrow.
Cheapo move
Look at the Astros roster, specifically the people he is responsible for bringing to Houston and say that again.
“He fell from the sky,
He fell very far and Houston he says is the name of the star.
Houston he says is the name of the star.” Ahahaha!
Cheapo move!
The people they give him credit for signing he did not sign. Those people signed while he was working for the Astros. Read how they word that. He’s not the one that found that talent. He’s not the one that brought that talent to the Astros.
It’s an assistant GM. Sounds like an appropriate hire.
Ng and Oz, that’s catchy but it still won’t sell tickets.
Rehire the real Oz, Ozzie Guillen and I’m in.
A better wordSMITH would know the real “Oz”. And it’s a wizard not a doctor.
Unless you are a big crudite fan.
BOOM!
He’s a wizard, that Oz.
Hmmm Skippy and Oz , gotta be having some Fruit Loops for breakfast reading Marlins box scores
007, The Mandella Effect claims they are spelled “Froot” Loops.
Hopefully the Marlins will not “loose” too many games
I’m at a hotel right now, and the breakfast area has little cereal boxes. I can confirm that it is in fact spelled “Froot Loops.”
Well, while we won’t know how all these moves will work out, I am happy to see that the Marlins are not waiting to pick from the leftovers that nobody else wanted.
Looks like the Marlins are putting leadership in place in preparation for the Winter Meetings.
Now they need to give Stottlemyre anything he wants to remain.
MarlinsFanBase;
I don’t think Ms. Ng is going to be a good hands-on Baseball Ops head.
But she can be a facilitator.
The arguments on here about the team needs this guy or that guy are pretty much what all losing teams fans do. No one or two or three players turn a team around. A superior organization does.
I think Kim Ng is doing what has been needed for the Marlins organization since their first season. Because you’re a big fan of theirs I hope she brings in another 2-3 major organizations people, and in turn they bring in some new hires.
Agreed that no one, two or three players would make us a contender, but I’m thinking about building with younger players and vets that can stabilize the team so the young players aren’t pressured as much as they have been.
One thing though: With all the blown late-inning leads over the last two seasons, I think it’s a good bet that if we had a legit Closer, just that one move leading to more leads held would probably result in a 10-win increase with just decent improvement in the bullpen.
Our SPs are almost ready to contend. The rest of our roster – bullpen and lineup – are clearly not. We need to do something to not waste away the years we get from our staff.
As for Kim Ng, it certainly is looking like she’s better as a facilitator instead of a move-maker. She has not wasted time this offseason getting people into place. I had to give her respect for that because we’ve seen our franchise sit back for so many winters letting other teams make the moves, and then the Marlins go to the remaining trash heap to pick what’s left, that nobody else wanted. Maybe in time, Ng becomes the VP or President of Player personnel, with Ocampo as the GM?
I dunno why it feels like now she is doing whatever she wants: Moving away from that Yankees – connection the Fish had until last year. Jeter, Mattingly gone. New people from different organisations (STL, HOU) and seems like she is not done. I am thrilled about this trend.
This team is 4 important players away from being competent, maybe 6 from contending. We really need to get two solid bats and keep hoping for bounce-back seasons from both Soler and García.
Today, before the WS starts, I would give my money for the closer role to Rafael Montero. He saved 14 games for HOU this year (in 16 chances) and will probably cost half of the money as Edwin Díaz, Jansen or Chapman. I would also sign somehow cheap arms like e.g., Ken Giles or Wittgren for some insurance, alas Boxberger and Romo last few years.
Good hire. Now hire two people that can teach hitting up and down the organization.
Yes or no poll.. do the salaries of the three ( Ng, Oz and Skip) total a mill annually ? Lol
Lmfao! who gives a f***?
Go fish.