Former Astros Head of International Development Interviewed by Yankees

The New York Yankees are searching for a candidate to become their international head of scouting next season, and a former Astros hand might be in the mix.

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No matter how big Major League Baseball is, it still feels very small on the relationship side. People work for one team, then get hired for another. Before they know it, they're working alongside the same coworkers that worked with them on a prior team, setting a paper trail of familiar faces.

Oz Ocampo Backstory

For the Houston Astros, employees and players come and go. One of their former executives, Oz Ocampo, was interviewed by the New York Yankees to become their head of international scouting.

Adding context, Ocampo has been working in the MLB since 2004. He was known for serving as Houston's executive of international scouting under former general manager Jeff Luhnow from 2012-2017 , and then shortly made a one-year reprisal in 2022.

During his time with other organizations in the Pirates and Marlins, Ocampo was a special assistant to the Pirates front office and most recently served as the Marlins’ assistant GM under then-GM Kim Ng, the former Yankees executive under Brian Cashman.

Ocampo Still A Houstonian

He still resides in Houston, currently working as a professor of global sports management at Rice University, one of Houston's esteemed Ivy League schools.

Rice University students were baffled at the thought of realizing their own professor played a major factor in their hometown team's two World Series runs in 2017 and 2022. He is behind the makings of notable Astros players in Framber Valdez, Bryan Abreu, José Urquidy, Cristian Javier, Luis Garcia and Yordan Alvarez, according to Chandler Rome. All players either participated or currently participate a major role in the Astros near decade of success. Not to mention cheap deals as well.

The Yankees interviewed Ocampo due to his sustained success scouting international players south of the United States border. He most famously scouting Valdez in particular, who is now a top ten pitcher in the league, a two-time All-Star and a World Series Champion.

How Ocampo Got Alvarez

But the creme of the crop was scouting Yordan Alvarez before anyone knew his name. Back in 2016, Ocampo urged the Astros to sign the future slugger, who ended up signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers due to a bidding war. The international scout did not give up on this blunder, urging again to Luhnow that they should trade former reliever Josh Fields to LA for Alvarez.

The #Astros have acquired Cuban minor league IF/OF Yordan Alvarez from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for RHP Josh Fields.

— Houston Astros (@astros) August 1, 2016

The deal was done. Just a few weeks after the Dodgers signed the former Cuban prospect, Alvarez was headed to H-Town. Every year Astros fans commemorate August 1st, 2016 as Yordan Alvarez day. He is now a long-term Astro, due in large part to Oz Ocampo.

Ocampo is known to take shots at other teams on social media as well. The Dodgers just became back-to-back World Series champions. Some opposing fans argue they've won due to breaking the bank on signing All-Star caliber players. "Didn’t cost us $1.032 billion to put it together either," Ocampo wrote, referring to Houston's success in the 2020s.

His keen eye for elite talent across the Western Hemisphere is exactly why the Yankees have taken a keen interest in him. The question now is whether he would leave his teaching job in Houston, the city where he’s found tremendous success, to join a franchise the Astros have built a heated rivalry with over the past decade.

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