ANAHEIM — Late one afternoon in the winter of 2015, two Houston Astros scouts, exhausted after a full day of watching prospects across the southeastern region of the Dominican Republic, headed home for Santo Domingo.



Beginning as early as 7 a.m. that day, they had driven all over San Pedro de Macorís to scout four or five programs arranged by agents/trainers — also known as buscones — and filled with young Dominican players. It approached 5 p.m. when they decided to call it a day and begin the hour-long drive west to the capital.



They were well on their way when the scout riding shotgun suddenly remembered there was one more player to watch. Before their day was over, area scout David Brito reminded supervisor Roman Ocumarez, they had to go see Framber Valdez.



Brito had stumbled upon Valdez only a few days earlier at a program in San Pedro de Macorís. At 21, five years older than most Latin American players when they sign their...