On Monday afternoon, it was broken on Twitter by Enrique Rojas of ESPN that the Marlins have a new international scouting director: Roman Ocumarez.
The position with Ocumarez will occupy became vacant when the organization moved on from Fernando Seguignol earlier this offseason. Seguignol was responsible for bringing both Victor Mesa Jr and Victor Victor Mesa to the Marlins in 2018 prior to heading up a potentially incredible 2019 international class including Eury Perez, Jose Salas, Ian Lewis, Junior Sanchez and others. Last season, Seguignol successfully signed the 10th ranked international prospect, shortstop Yiddi Cappe as well as outfielder Kevin Guerrero and catchers Ronald Hernandez and Edward Duran all of whom rank well inside Fish on the Farm’s top consensus 100 prospects. With his recent overall success, Seguignol’s release came at an intriguing time. According to Craig Mish speaking on an episode of Fish Stripes Live, Jeter and company must have had their eye on someone.
That someone was apparently Ocumarez who has quite the track record of his own. Ocumarez comes to the Marlins from the Houston Astros where he served as a scout and as as Latin American scouting supervisor. He is credited with signings the likes of Cristian Javier, Framber Valdez, Enoli Paredes (each for $10,000 bonuses) Luis Garcia, Cristian Gonzalez (Astros #14 prospect per MLB Pipeline), Dauri Lorenzo (Astros #26) and many more throughout his tenure with the current American League champions.
Past his ability to scout and sign projectable big leaguers, Ocumarez uses several practices that should benefit the Marlins’ deep system, particularly at the rookie ball levels. In contrast to Seguignol who signed at least one big name each international class and a handful of guys after, Ocumarez, working with a smaller bonus pool, is known for sighting many guys each international period. To get them all playing time, the Astros used the two team approach in the FCL and DSL. Both teams played their home games at the same complexes and were differentiated by a color code, Astros Blue and Astros Orange. If adopted by the Marlins, not only will this strategy be beneficial for the future, it will aid prospects already in the organization who had their on field time severely limited in 2021, specifically pitchers and those at middle infield spots.
Ocumarez, known for finding quality international players deeper down in classes, brings a bevy of scouting expertise from a variety of roles. With the Marlins already linked to right handed pitcher Julio Mendez in the upcoming signing period, if Ocumarez can continue finding talent for minimal bonuses, expect to see many new names come in to the system and one day to the Marlins via the international draft in years to come. An organization that prides itself on its international roots and the closest one to Latin America, Ocumarez will have a hand in making the dreams of more young international players a reality just miles away from home in a Miami Marlins uniform.
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