What finally pushed the Tigers to spend more money than they had ever lavished on a Latin American teen was what they saw at a place called, simply, Academy Baseball Training, which rests not far from the Tigers’ development camp and prospect hatchery in San Pedro de Macoris, along the Dominican Republic’s Caribbean coast.
Roberto Campos was a young teen. But in the minds of scouts, he was irresistible: Campos stood 6-foot-1 when the Tigers first scouted him in 2017. Now, at age 16, he is 6-3. He might have weighed 170 pounds during those early glimpses. Now he is a good 200.