LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The whole baseball world seemed to be here for last week’s winter meetings, the convention hotel lobby packed like a nightclub, and baseball’s youngest proclaimed insider zipping around while he texted with sources. He was the one in creaseless khaki pants, crisp dress shirt and red sneakers, his head held high.

Chris Cotillo is also only 18 and a high school senior, but after breaking several national baseball stories from his home in Northborough, Mass., in recent weeks, he was clearly a source of intrigue among the people who work in baseball or report on it for a living. Everyone wanted to know how the kid did it. Who were his sources? Shouldn’t he be doing his English homework?

In an interview last week, Cotillo said it all began with an anonymous Twitter account, @TradeDeadliner, that he started in his sophomore year to gather and distribute baseball news. He gained a following, switched the account over to his name and, a little more than a year ago, started writing about Boston sports for CLNSRadio.com.

After a while, he said, he started gaining sources. He found them online and told them everything — how young he was, how he wanted to make sports journalism his career. And he asked them if they would help him out.