SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -The New York Mets unveiled a sprawling new training academy in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday in an effort to develop more of the talent-rich country’s baseball prospects.
The $8 million facility in Boca Chica, a beach resort east of the capital of Santo Domingo, includes two regulation-size playing fields. One of the fields copies the dimensions and wall height of Citi Field, the ballpark the Mets will move into next season.
Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, a former New Yorker, joined the team’s executives at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the 37-acre academy, which will serve as the hub for the major league club’s Latin American baseball operations.
The new academy also includes dormitories, two bunting fields, two batting tunnels, four covered pitching mounds, and weight and training rooms.
“We expect our new academy to become a destination facility for talented athletes to learn – on the field and off it – through competition and education,” said Jeff Wilpon, the club’s chief operating officer.
The new training academy replaces the franchise’s previous Dominican facility in the southern province of San Cristobal.
The Mets, who have six Dominican players on their active roster, are hoping to develop more of its share of the talent regularly produced by the developing Caribbean country of 9.2 million people.
Many Dominican players rise up through baseball academies lining the nation’s south coast.
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