Fred Ocasio lays the foundation for future Rockies players

Most fans don’t recognize his name, but Fred Ocasio has been a mainstay with the Colorado Rockies since 1998, working entirely in the lower minors. His résumé is extensive.

He began as a hitting coach with the AZL Rockies in Tucson before moving to the High-A Salem Avalanche for a year. He then moved back to the west coast as a hitting coach for the Short-Season Tri-City Dust Devils before taking over as manager in 2006. Ocasio managed the Dust Devils through the 2012 season, and then went back to the East

Coast ahead of the 2013 season, where he then managed the Low-A Asheville Tourists for two years before Warren Schaeffer took over in 2015.

In 2015, Ocasio moved up to manage the Modesto Nuts and then the Lancaster JetHawks. However, from 2019-2021, he took a step back from coaching and served as a supervisor for the Spokane Indians, where he basically oversaw the coaching staff to make sure everything was running smoothly.

But the in 2022 season, the manager spot opened up for the Arizona Complex League. Ocasio threw his hat in the ring and got the job, where he has been since.

Early roles

Ocasio didn’t always have dreams of being a coach, but he knew it was something he could pivot to if his own professional career didn’t pan out. He played just 41 games in the minors before moving into coaching.

“I played a couple of years in the minor leagues, and then what made me pivot was that I was not good enough to continue playing,” he said.

“So the Rockies gave me a chance to be a coach in 1998. When I left college and signed as a free agent, I always had the dream that I was going to be a big leaguer, but I was realistic. I’d seen other guys play, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m not as good as those guys.’ I wanted to play Minor League Baseball just to get the experience and hopefully down the road, it would help me get a coaching job. And eventually that’s what happened.”

He started his coaching career as a hitting coach before moving into a managerial role, but he enjoyed aspects of both roles.

“As a hitting coach, my favorite part is obviously getting to work with the position players – the work that you do in the cages, the day in and day out work with them, watching them in the game and seeing how they improve throughout the year. That’s always been my favorite,” he said.

“The most important thing – and one of the things that I love watching – is when you get a kid, and he gets here, and he’s at one point in his career, and then you see him by the end of the season, you see all of the improvements he’s made. That’s always good to see. But then as a manager, it’s a little bit more because now you work with the pitchers, the hitters and the catchers. Obviously, creating relationships with all the players and getting to know them is the main thing with these guys.”

Building relationships is Ocasio’s MO, something he truly enjoys, and he makes sure to find commonalities with his players as quickly as possible.

“I always try to pick something that I think they like, or I ask questions,” he said. “It could be what college they come from, and then I could go, ‘Well, I played at Oklahoma State,’ and we go from there. It could be fantasy football. It could be golf. I always try to get something. I try to find out what kind of stuff they like and then if it’s something that I like too, we’ll go from there.”

But he also knows the importance of learning about their families, especially because for many of his players, this is their first time playing professional baseball or even being in the United States. For players to feel comfortable and play hard, they need to know how much their coaches care.

“I like to create relationships with the players because they want to know that you care for them,” he said.

“And then once you do that, once they see that, they’ll play for you. They’ll play hard, and obviously that’s something that I like to do. I like to make sure that the players feel comfortable around me, and I joke around with them. If I need to be hard on them, I’m hard on them. But I like to joke around with them, and I like to create those relationships so that they know, ‘Hey, this guy cares about me.’”

Setting the foundation

Ocasio returned to rookie ball in 2022, where he has stayed. Since then, the ACL Rockies have finished in the Top 4 three separate times, including their win in 2026, and made the playoffs in four of his five seasons. Additionally, Ocasio has won Manager of the Year twice in his five seasons. (More on that later.)

But he loves working with rookies because “the players are eager to learn.”

“They want to work, and when you get these young kids and they start the season (in one place) and by the end of the season – or maybe by the end of spring training when you see them again – you see an improvement,” he continued. “You say, ‘Wow, remember that kid when he came here? He was just 17 or 18 years old and he couldn’t do this or he did that, but look at how much better he’s doing it now.’ And just their growth and how you can see them grow as a professional baseball player and as a human being — just knowing that they’re getting better and seeing how they’re growing.”

And the ACL specifically is unique because he is not only helping players adjust to playing professional baseball, but also helping many of them adjust to living in the United States.

“That’s one of the main things, with me being bilingual and these kids coming from Puerto Rico, the Dominican (Republic), Venezuela, Mexico – all of these Spanish-speaking countries,” he said. “And then I go down to the Dominican – we have the academy down there – twice a year. Sometimes I just go once a year, but I go down there, get to know them, and talk to them – especially the ones I know who are coming over here.”

Once they get stateside, he makes sure to know that he’s got their backs.

“I stay in the hotel where they stay so I always tell them, ‘Look, this is my phone number. Call me at any time with whatever. If you need to go to the grocery store, I’ll take you to the grocery store. If you need to go to the bank, if something happens in the room and you need my help in the lobby, just give me a call,” he said. “Obviously you do stuff at the fields – you manage and you help them on the field – but off the field, I always want to make sure that they know I’m here for whatever they need.”

Additionally, similar to Triple-A, the ACL sees a lot of players making appearances in addition to their regular roster. This year in particular, Jared Thomas and Griffin Herring made rehab assignments in the ACL, while Jordan Romano made a few starts after he was signed to a minor league deal just to get him acclimated to the new organization.

So that’s something that Ocasio and his staff balance throughout the season.

“We work around everybody,” he said. “We have our schedule that we do with the ACL team and a lot of these rehab (assignments), when they come in town – depending where they are in their rehab – they join the team.

“So they practice with the team,” Ocasio continued. “Some of the kids that are not ready to practice are doing more training room stuff, or maybe they’re not ready to practice with the team, but they need flips in the cages or extra ground balls. We’ve got a few coaches down here, so we always have somebody to either throw extra BP or hit extra ground balls, or just be there for those rehabs that come. But most of the time, once they’re ready to start playing the game, they just incorporate with the team.”

One shining moment

This year was special for Ocasio and his team because they won the ACL and took home hardware for their coaching efforts.

“It was very nice,” Ocasio said of the win.

“Winning a championship is not easy, no matter what league it is, and for this team to be able to play the way they played this year and were able to finish and actually win the championship was awesome. I was telling them from day one, ‘Hey, this is the group that is going to do it.’ And they believed, and they worked hard, and they got it done.”

He also gave credit to his staff for their help along the way.

“It felt good. It’s obviously always good and it feels good to be named Manager of the Year,” he said, “but one thing I told the group here with the Rockies and the ACL is that for me, I feel it shouldn’t be Manager of the Year. It should be Staff of the Year because I was the manager here, but we had some hitting coaches, we had some pitching coaches and catching coaches. It was a group thing, we all did it together. We all worked hard every day to get these players better and work with them. So I was named Manager of the Year, but for me, it’s Staff of the Year.”

The friends made along the way

Ocasio has had a long tenure with the Rockies and has coached many players including Juan Uribe and Matt Holliday. But he also coached another notable Rockie: current manager Warren Schaeffer.

“I was the manager in Tri-City and Schaeffer was drafted that year,” Ocasio recalled. “He came first actually to Tri-City, back when we had those two teams – Tri-City and Casper in the short season. So when he got drafted, they sent him to Tri-City. He was going to be with that team, and I don’t remember if it was one or two practices that he was there. We were doing a mini camp, and then something happened in Casper where I got a call saying, ‘We need a shortstop. We need somebody that can play defense.’ And I said, ‘Well, Schaeffer’s your guy.’ So the he ended up going to Casper and starting his career in Casper as a baseball player.”

Schaeffer remembered it a little bit differently.

“When I first got drafted in ‘07, I went to Tri-City not knowing what to expect. He was the manager there. I was there for, like, four days, and Freddie shipped me out to Casper,” Schaeffer recalled. “We still joke about that today — he needed some guys that could hit, so he shipped me out. But Freddie’s the best. I mean, he’s literally the best. He wins everywhere he’s at. He finds a great atmosphere. He’s so much fun to be around. Everybody jokes with him. He’s a really, really good baseball man. Freddie’s just a Rockies staple.”

And Schaeffer remembers his time with Ocasio fondly.

“He’s just the same guy every day,” he said. “He’s never in a bad mood. He’s always for the player. He likes to have a good time. Everybody’s unique in how they coach and how they manage, and Freddie’s definitely unique.”

Ocasio is also proud of how Schaeffer worked his way up the Rockies’ system.

“It’s awesome to watch him (manage the Rockies). He’s a very, very good baseball person and an awesome human being,” he said.

But Schaeffer made sure to emphasize one thing: The importance of having your best teachers in the lower levels to set a foundation for the rest of an organization.

“Well, it’s been an age-old debate,” he said. “Since I’ve been coaching – especially in a development-centered organization like ours – a lot of people always say that you want to have your best teachers in the lower levels and pay them more than anybody else because when you’re coming in and the guys are freshly getting drafted or getting onboarded with what we’re trying to do, it’s a daily grind. It’s a process everywhere you’re at – High-A, Low-A, Double-A, Triple-A. It’s a daily grind, but it’s all different. And to have guys like that, like Freddie, who are great teachers at that level and they are persistent and keep doing every day.

“It’s ultra important.”

On the Farm

Triple-A: Albuquerque Isotopes 10, Tacoma Rainiers 6

Charlie Condon (No. 2 PuRP) was a one-man wrecking crew for the Isotopes today, scoring nine of their 10 runs. Oh, and he also hit two grand slams — one in the third inning and another in the eighth. His other RBI came off a double in the fourth inning, and the 10th RBI came from Sterlin Thompson (No. 16 PuRP) when he walked with the bases loaded to set up Condon’s first slam.

The slams were set up as such. In the third inning, Bryant Betancourt singled and Conner Capel popped out. Then Drew Avans singled, Nic Kent was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Thompson walked to load them again and then Condon happened. In the eighth, Cappel doubled, Avans hit a sac bunt, Kent walked, Thompson was hit by a pitch, and then Condon happened again.

Kent and Braxton Fulford were the only Isotopes without a hit.

The Rainiers (Mariners) put up a fight, though. They struck first, scoring three runs in the second inning. They also battled back in the fifth with two more runs, and their final was scored in the eighth to tie the game at six (and then Condon said ‘hold my beverage’ in the next inning).

On the pitching side, Case Williams pitched just 1.1 innings and allowed three runs on one hit with four walks and one strikeout. Blake Adams came in after him, pitching 3.1 innings and allowing two runs on eight hits with a walk and a strikeout. Evan Shawver got the hold with his 1.1 innings of work (3 hits, 1 BB); Andrew Baker blew the save in his 1.2 innings (2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K); and TJ Shook earned the win in his final 1.1 perfect innings.

Double-A: Reading Fightin Phils 6, Hartford Yard Goats 2

The Yard Goats were less fortunate in their matchup against the Fightin Phils (Phillies). They mustered eight hits, but only two came around to score. Kyle Karros continued his rehab assignment, going 2-for-4 with a walk, and Dyan Jorge went 3-for-4 with a triple, a run scored and a strikeout. The two RBI came from Zach Kokoska, who went 1-for-4 with a home run, a run scored, two RBI and a strikeout.

Reading jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning when Bryan Rincon led off the game with a walk and then Pedro León homered two batters later. Raylin Heredia then walked, stole second, and advanced to third on a balk. Then Raider Tello homered to put the Phils up 4-0. The Goats fought back in the fourth when Jorge singled with two outs and stole second, and then was driven home when Kokoska homered. But the Phils piled on more runs in the eighth when four-straight players reached to score two more runs and make the score 6-2.

On the pitching side, Sam Weatherly opened and pitched just 1.2 innings. He allowed four runs on three hits with three walks, a strikeout and two homers. Cade Denton came in to relieve him, pitching 5.1 scoreless innings and allowing three hits, one walk and three strikeouts. Nathan Blasick pitched the final two innings, allowing the two runs on four hits with a walk and a strikeout.

High-A: Spokane Indians 10, Everett AquaSox 4

The Indians made a statement in their final game, beating the AquaSox (Mariners) by a score of 10-4. Every Indian who had a hit had at least two, except for Jacob Hinderleider who went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Max Belyeu (No. 23 PuRP) didn’t record a hit, but he drew a walk, while Juan Castillo just went 0-for-2 before being pinch hit for.

Ethan Hedges and Robert Calaz each had three RBI. Hedges went 2-for-4 with a double, a home run, three RBI, two runs scored and a strikeout. Calaz went 2-for-4 with two home runs, three RBI and two runs scored. Dalis went 3-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored.

Everett scored first when Luke Stevenson singled to kick off the game and Luke Suisbel walked. Two batters later, Brandon Eike doubled to score Stevenson. But in the bottom of the first, Belyeu walked and Derek Bernard grounded into a force out to get Belyeu. But then Hedges doubled to score Bernard from first. Dalis then homered to tack on two more runs, and Calaz grounded out. But then Tanner Thach doubled and Hidalgo singled to make the score 4-0. Everett struck again in the third with another run, but then two batters into their half, Calaz homered to make the score 6-2. Back-to-back singles and a sac bunt then set up Hinderleider to sacrifice in Thach, and a single and a homer into the fourth made the score 9-2.

The Indians scored again in the seventh when Calaz hit a leadoff homer, and that was it for them. But the AquaSox were able to knock in two more runs in the ninth to make the final score 10-4.

On the pitching side, Yujanyer Herrera threw five innings and allowed two runs on four hits with three walks and six strikeouts. Luke Hansel relieved him for the final four, allowing two runs on five hits with one walk and two strikeouts to earn the save.

Low-A: San Jose Giants 5, Fresno Grizzlies 3

The Grizzlies were not as lucky in their final game, as they fell to the Giants (Giants) 5-3.

San Jose kicked things off right out of the gate when Lorenzo Meola hit a leadoff homer. Luke Nixon then doubled and Dario Reynoso struck out. But then Jeremiah Jenkins was hit by a pitch and Drew Smith singled to score Nixon. They scored again in the third when Nixon walked to lead things off and Reynoso struck out again, but then Jenkins singled and Drew Smith grounded out to score Nixon. In the fifth, Reynoso led off with a double and was scored two batters later by a Smith single to make things 4-0.

The Grizzlies finally got on the board in the fifth when Jesus Freitez tripled, Cort MacDonald doubled to score him, and Kyle Fossum singled to score MacDonald. Sebastian Blanco then doubled to score Fossum and put the Grizzlies within on, but they were unable to capitalize on the pitching change after that. The final run of the game was scored in the ninth when Yanzel Correa got two quick outs, but then hit Meola, who stole second, and allowed a hit to Nixon to make the final score 5-3. The Grizzlies went 1-2-3 in the ninth, when Carlos Renzullo was called out on strikes to end it.

Ronny Ugarte went 2-for 4 with a strikeout. MacDonald went 3-for-4 with a double, a run scored and an RBI. And Freitez, Fossum and Blanco each had one hit apiece.

On the pitching side, Tanner Sagouspe was the only pitcher to not allow a run, pitching a scoreless seventh and eighth in which he didn’t allow a hit nor a run, and only walked one while striking out three.

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