EL TORO DE GUERRA, Dominican Republic — What’s visible is the end product: Brayan Bello and Rafael Devers are homegrown cornerstones of the Red Sox, players signed to long-term deals who are expected to anchor the team for years.
But the “homegrown” label is not one-size-fits-all. Players from Latin America and the Caribbean who come through the Boston Red Sox Dominican Republic Baseball Academy have a path to the big leagues that’s distinct from their American counterparts.
“It’s very different,” said Bello recently through a translator.
All 30 major league teams have academies in the Dominican Republic. The Red Sox facility resides a traffic-heavy 20 miles east of downtown Santo Domingo, neighbored by the Dominican operations of several other teams.
The team logo is visible on a palm tree-shaded sign marking the entrance to the academy, where vehicles must pause before passing through the Fenway-green security gate. Beyond the gate and past a row of palm trees, the complex appears as a gleaming hub of baseball activity.
“Welcome to a piece of Massachusetts in the middle of the Dominican,” said Javier Hernandez, the Red Sox Dominican Academy manager, on a recent tour.
This is how players from Latin America and the Caribbean make it into pro ball. Most come from the Dominican and Venezuela, but some hail from Curaçao, Aruba, Colombia, and Panama.
Jan. 15 is the official signing date. Each winter, a new class of players — eligible if they will turn 17 before September — ink deals and officially begin the journey.
”It was something really special, something I worked really hard for since I was little,” said 17-year-old outfielder Vladimir Asencio through a translator.
Asencio signed this Jan. 15 for $1 million, having left home to work with a trainer as an 11-year-old.
“I was finally reaching my goal,” he said. “I was happy, relieved that I finally signed.”
Almost immediately after signing, players move into the academy.
“It’s finally here where we can begin developing them 24/7 and get their careers started,” said Red Sox assistant general manager Eddie Romero.
Upgrades made it top-notch
The Red Sox acquired their academy in 2003. At the time, it consisted of a couple of fields with players housed off-site. The team built a dorm for players, a barracks-style setup with bunk beds, all in a single room, with no air conditioning. It was sparse.
In 2006, under then-vice president of international scouting Craig Shipley, Romero was hired and put in charge of upgrading the facility. Among his first projects was installing air conditioning. Over time, steady improvements were made both to the infrastructure and the programs.
“We were literally going month to month on a shoestring budget,” said Romero. “I kept fighting, like, ‘We need to treat this like one of our affiliates. This is one of our affiliates.’ It used to be just an afterthought.”
When the Red Sox expanded from one to two Dominican Summer League teams in 2015, the facility was strained. The number of players and coaches had doubled, roving coordinators were regularly cycling into the academy, and it was time to upgrade.
A major renovation took place in 2018-19, resulting in state-of-the-art batting cages, a pitching lab, plyo walls, a turf agility field, as well as modern facilities for video breakdowns and scouting. Compared with the facilities at most programs in the Dominican, seeing the Red Sox setup feels like setting foot in the technicolor world of Oz.
From a baseball standpoint, the academy offers everything.
“[The players are] coming from zero to the academy,” said Jose Zapata, the Red Sox Latin America field coordinator. “We’re trying to ease the transition, to teach them the same thing that’s going to happen in Fort Myers.”
Those who run the academy aren’t just focused on producing big leaguers. They also must embrace their responsibility to care for teenagers who either are leaving home or, like Asencio, did so at a jarringly early age.
“The majority of these players come from very, very humble beginnings,” said Romero, “where they’re kind of removed from their homes to go to these independent programs to continue their baseball development with a hope of getting signed to a large signing bonus or whatever they can do. It’s putting an immense amount of pressure on a young kid. [They see this as] their best opportunity to get out of poverty. They give up things — they give up a normal childhood, they give up learning about other topics. When you see where some of these players are coming from, that’s where it really becomes [clear] we bear the responsibility of making sure to do everything we can … to properly nourish them, properly educate them.
“We know unfortunately that the majority of them won’t make it. They can still be productive.”
Since Romero’s arrival in 2006, fewer than 30 of the hundreds of players who started in El Toro have appeared in a major league game. A majority will never play above the Dominican Summer League. The Red Sox hired a Latin education coordinator in 2006 to help provide instruction and life skills to aid players regardless of how far they advance, and those programs have been expanded.
In classrooms, the team teaches not only English (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) but also practical skills such as opening a bank account, driving, and navigating an airport. The Sox help players receive the Dominican equivalent of a high school GED.
“We try to help those guys stand by themselves,” said Zapata.
The Sox have tried to create an environment players will embrace — and to which, in many cases, they’ll happily return in offseasons even after they graduate to the States.
Romero, Hernandez, and Zapata all joined the Sox in 2006. They have helped create a sense of mission that is felt by players at the academy. Zapata — who is called “Shoes” by many in reference to the translation of his name, with the unintended but perfect pairing of “Shoes” and “Sox” — is particularly influential, lauded as a father figure.
“Every time he talked, you listened,” said Bello. “He cared about us and saw the talent that we had.”
‘The essence of baseball’
The energy of the facility is drawn from the on-field work, with joy in the sun-splashed setting.
In mid-March, more than two months before the start of the DSL season, the emphasis among the 83 players and 14 coaches was on fundamentals and cultivating routines to support players early in their pro careers. Players woke up at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast and baseball activities as well as strength and conditioning work until roughly 11:30 a.m.
Romero beamed as he took it in.
“This is, as cheesy as it sounds, the essence of baseball,” he said. “It’s not about the money here. There’s no media presence here. It’s very baseball-centric. You can come here and the only thing you’re focusing on is every player’s individual development on however many fronts. It’s amazing.”
After lunch and a two-hour break, players had classes in the afternoon and early evening, then dinner followed by down time. Though permitted to leave the premises in the evening (so long as they returned by curfew) and on weekends, most stay.
“These guys are more comfortable here,” said Hernandez.
The large lounge where players hang out, with Red Sox games on TV a constant during the season, features signage from Fenway Park, markers of a hoped-for future. Just down the hall is a reminder that such aspirations are possible.
Twenty frames line a wall, each with two pictures — one of a Sox minor leaguer when he played at the academy, one on the occasion of his big league debut. Many of those pictured (Yamaico Navarro, Engel Beltré, and Stolmy Pimentel, to name a few) made only a limited mark in the big leagues, with the Sox or another team.
But there also are paired photos of Xander Bogaerts, who lived at the academy in 2009-10, and Devers, who went there after signing in 2013 and was a star on the DSL Sox in 2014.
“This justifies all the money the Red Sox have spent here when you put these up,” said Hernandez.
Soon there will be pictures of Bello and Ceddanne Rafaela, the outfielder who seems likely to be on the Opening Day roster. Others — including pitchers Wikelman Gonzalez and Luis Perales, as well as lower-level prospects Miguel Bleis, an outfielder, and infielder Yoeilin Cespedes — could join them in 2024 and beyond.
“There are more guys coming,” said Zapata.
In that proclamation, there’s a sense that the big league future of the Red Sox is tied to the work of teenagers being done 1,600 miles away from Boston. Romero referred to the academy as a “foundational affiliate,” a status that has been years in the making.
“We’re connected with the whole thing,” agreed Zapata. “Before, it was different. Now, we’re connected.”
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.