Marlins tab Ocampo as assistant GM

MIAMI -- Marlins general manager Kim Ng continues to check things off her to-do list, this time hiring Astros executive Oz Ocampo to be her new assistant GM. He was present at Skip Schumaker's introductory press conference on Thursday.

"I think one of my main goals was to bring in people who have had a lot of experience, a lot of different types of experience with different organizations that have had success," Ng said. "... He was there in the early years of Houston on this recent run, and so to bring that type of experience and to be able to use him as a resource and understand some of the bumps they've hit in the road, I wanted to try and expedite our curve as much as we could. So I think to bring in people like Skip and Oz, to be resources to help us expedite our curve, was huge for me."

Ocampo, an international crosschecker, had a pronounced role in Houston landing Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, José Urquidy and Luis Garcia -- four-sixths of the club's starting rotation -- and first baseman Yuli Gurriel. The Astros are competing in the World Series for the fourth time in six years.

According to Ocampo's LinkedIn profile, he is a 19-year MLB executive with the Cardinals, Astros, Pirates and Major League Baseball Commissioner's Office in the Dominican Republic and New York. He is multilingual in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog and French.

In stories by MLB.com Astros beat reporter Brian McTaggart, the 38-year-old Ocampo began working in the Dominican Republic in 2004 and he attended scout school at the same time. Ocampo worked for the Cardinals under Jeff Luhnow from '05-09 in various capacities, then MLB for two years as a specialist in international baseball operations. Ocampo reunited with Luhnow in Houston in ‘12, helping to oversee international scouting, player development, operations and analytics, before leaving the Astros early in ‘20. He returned in March.

In between stints with the Astros, per his LinkedIn, Ocampo spent time with the Pirates as special assistant of player personnel, focusing on integrating traditional and progressive evaluation methods across amateur, pro and international player markets. He also was involved in the hiring across baseball operations (Major League, R&D/analytics, amateur scouting, coaching & player development and international).

“It's an exceptional track record, especially in the Latin American space, although not limited to the Latin American space at all,” senior director of international operations Adrian Lorenzo told MLB.com. “He seems like a jack of all trades with the ability to impact things everywhere, coming from an organization that's one of the top organizations in all of baseball. I'm ecstatic about the opportunity to learn and absorb from somebody with that kind of track record and character. Everything I hear is just glowing and outstanding. That's been my experience with him as well.”

Ocampo joins Miami's other two assistant GMs on staff: Brian Chattin and Dan Greenlee. Chattin has been with the Marlins for 25 seasons, the last seven as assistant GM. Greenlee just finished his fifth season with Miami, second as assistant GM.

"Four minds are better than three," Ng said.