In March, ESPN the Magazine featured a 14-year-old shortstop named Robert Puason in an article detailing the difficulties ethnic Haitians in the Dominican Republic face trying to produce the documentation necessary to sign with major-league clubs. The article, describing Puason as 6-foot-3 and wiry, said his buscon, or trainer, believed that he already was showing the size and skills that Minnesota Twins slugger Miguel Sano demonstrated at 16.



Puason is ineligible to sign with a major-league team until he turns 16 on July 2, 2019, but the Atlanta Braves allegedly reached a verbal agreement with him, according to sources with knowledge of baseball’s investigation into the club. The deal is one of several possible violations by the Braves in baseball’s latest scandal over the signings of international amateurs, which led to the resignations of Braves general manager John Coppolella and special assistant to the GM Gordon Blakeley on Monday.



The Braves issued...