The Pirates are adding Oz Ocampo, one of the architects of the Astros' international talent pipeline, to their front office.
Ocampo had been with the Astros the past seven seasons. He was the director of international and Latin player development from September 2012-September 2017, where he oversaw all aspects of international scouting, player development, operations and analytics. He was promoted to a special assistant to the general manager in September 2017 and was an interpreter for the team's Latin players the past two seasons. He traveled with the team and assisted on advanced scouting, too.
He will be a special assistant of player personnel with the Pirates, focusing on scouting and player development.
Ocampo took to Twitter Friday to announce the news.
Back to my scouting roots. Thank you Houston! @astros @pirates @mlb pic.twitter.com/qEaSEyIh9Q
— Oz (@OcampoBaseball) January 3, 2020
Some of the Astros' more notable signings during his time as the director of international operations were Yuli Gurriel, Jose Urquidy and Cionel Perez. The Astros also included international players who had signed under Ocampo's tenure in the trades for Justin Verlander, Ryan Pressly and Brian McCann.
Before coming to Houston, Ocampo was with the Cardinals from 2005-2009 and spent a year working for Major League Baseball from 2011-2012. Ocampo worked with Astros' GM Jeff Luhnow with both the Astros and the Cardinals.
Ocampo left the Astros shortly after the World Series concluded.
Ocampo is GM Ben Cherington's second notable addition to his front office this winter, joining new assistant GM Steve Sanders.
