He helped Houston go from rebuild to annual contenders. Can Oz Ocampo help turn around Marlins?
The Miami Marlins can learn a thing or two from the Houston Astros about what it takes to assemble a championship-winning team.
Fortunately for the Marlins, they have one of Houston’s top executives in Oz Ocampo on their staff now as an assistant general manager who can help guide them on that path.
Ocampo, speaking to the media Wednesday via Zoom from MLB’s general managers meetings in Las Vegas, said the Marlins have a path to potentially to set themselves up for long-term success.
Where does that start? Like just about everyone else who evaluates the Marlins, Ocampo points to the team’s starting pitching. As an indicator Ocampo was quick to point out that the two teams that played in the World Series — the Astros and Philadelphia Phillies — led MLB in wins above replacement gained from their starting pitchers during the regular season, according to FanGraphs.
“We have that great foundation,” said Ocampo, who has nearly two decades of experience in various roles as an MLB executive. “It’s about helping the offensive side and continuing to improve in that area, but we’ve got a great foundation of young starting pitching to work from.”
Before joining the Marlins, Ocampo was with the Astros as an international crosschecker this past season. It was his second stint with the Astros. Previously, he led Houston’s international scouting department from 2012 to 2017 before spending two seasons as a special assistant to then-general manager Jeff Luhnow.
During his first stint with Houston, which coincided with Houston’s rebuild effort that started in 2011, Ocampo had a prominent role in the Astros signing starting pitchers Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Jose Urquidy and Luis Garcia — all of whom were part of Houston’s starting rotation — as well as first baseman Yuli Gurriel. That group has been part of the core that has helped Houston reach six consecutive American League Championship Series and three World Series during the past six years.
“Oz was there in the early years of Houston’s run,” Marlins general manager Kim Ng said last week, “so to bring that type of experience and to be able to use him as a resource and understand some of the bumps they hit in the road can help us expedite our curve as much as we can.”
Development from within has been a key part of the Astros’ stability. Of the 26 players on the Astros’ World Series roster this year, 14 were homegrown (either drafted or signed as international free agents by Houston), 10 were acquired via trade and two signed as free agents — a similar formula the Marlins have been trying to implement but to nowhere near the same success.
“The focus on scouting and player development is the biggest thing,” Ocampo said, “and an alignment with analytics and making sure that’s aligned top to bottom across all areas. ... Having that alignment and really focusing on bringing young players to the organization and helping them maximize their potential is really critical.”
As for his role specifically in the organization, Ocampo is one of three assistant general managers in Miami’s front office, joining Brian Chattin and Dan Greenlee. Ocampo, who has primarily worked on the player evaluation side of baseball operations, said he has been leaning on Chattin and Greenlee as the trio attempts to form a well-rounded group to assist Ng.
“It requires experience and backgrounds from all different backgrounds and experiences to really help make the best decisions,” said Ocampo, whose expertise is in player evaluation. “I feel really fortunate we have that sort of depth to work with.”
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