Oscar Salazar

Oscar Enrique Salazar
(El Cachi)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 178 lb.

• Debut April 10, 2002
• Final Game October 2, 2010
• Born June 27, 1978 in Maracay, Aragua, Venezuela

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Biographical Information

The Oakland Athletics signed Oscar Salazar as an amateur free agent in 1994 and he played in their minor league system through 2001. He was picked up on waivers in early 2002 by the Detroit Tigers and made his major league debut on April 10th. His stay with the Tigers only lasted 8 games before he began a journey through a number of baseball organizations. Salazar did not reappear in the majors until 2008 with the Baltimore Orioles. The next two years he split time between the majors and minors with the Orioles (2009) and San Diego Padres (2009-2010). Overall Salazar hit .269/.342/.435 while appearing in 199 MLB games. He finished his playing career in 2011 with the Florida Marlins AAA club, the New Orleans Zephyrs.

Salazar returned to the Padres organization in 2017 to begin a professional coaching career. He was a fielding coach for the Tri-City Dust Devils from 2017-2019. Salazar was slated to manage the AZL Padres 1 in 2020 before COVID-19 shut down the minor league season. He completed the Padres portion of his coaching career in 2021 as a defensive coach for the El Paso Chihuahuas.

The Washington Nationals hired Salazar for a development coach position with the Harrisburg Senators in 2022-2024.

In addition to his work in the United States, Salazar coached for several seasons in the Venezuelan League. He was the third base coach for the Tigres de Aragua in 2017/2018. He started the next year in the same role, but took over as manager on November 12th. In 2020/2021 Salazar switched to the Leones del Caracas as a bench coach. He coached third base for Caracas during the next three seasons.