$765 million man is still ‘just Soto’ to his minor league host family

By Ken Rosenthal / The Athletic

The first thing Juan Soto wanted to do was find a GameStop where he could address a faulty PlayStation console. He was just 19, newly arrived in Hagerstown, Maryland, to begin the 2018 season at Low-A. The head of his host family, Brian Campbell, chuckled at the recollection. Soto, baseball’s $765 million man, laughed out loud.

Seven years later, the memories endure.

Soto stayed with the Campbells for about three weeks in April 2018 before advancing to High-A, Double-A and the majors in less than a month. Even after signing the richest contract in sports history, he remains in touch with Campbell.

“People always ask, ‘Is he arrogant?’” Campbell said. “Nope. He’s just Soto.”

Campbell, 47, has taken his daughter, three sons and other family members to visit Soto at major league parks and gone out to dinner with him on occasion.

“I know it was a short time, but we had so much fun every single day in that house,” Soto said late last month when the New York Mets started their season in Houston. “It’s a big family, a really lovely family that welcomed us like we were their kids.”

Soto, during his time with the Hagerstown Suns, was not much older than Campbell’s sons, two of whom were 15 and another who was 12. Campbell and his ex-wife also hosted three other players that season, none of whom reached the majors, and about 15 total from 2017-19. The majority of the players were Latin American.

Other team members would come by after games to hang out at the Campbell home. Tom Burtman, the Suns’ director of promotions, recalled hearing the home was a “happening place.” Soto, smiling broadly, concurred with that assessment.

“Every time we came back from a game, we had our table for playing cards, video games, karaoke,” Soto said. “I was really surprised by everything they had. And every night, it didn’t matter whether we were tired or not, we would always go back down to the basement and try to have fun.”

Times have changed. The Washington Nationals’ affiliate in Hagerstown no longer exists, eliminated in 2020 as part of baseball’s minor league restructuring. Host family programs, once a staple of minor league baseball, no longer exist, either.

Two years ago, in the first minor league collective bargaining agreement, Major League Baseball agreed to double salaries and provide guaranteed housing for most minor leaguers. The host family programs, in the view of the Major League Baseball Players Association, became unnecessary.

While conditions for minor leaguers clearly have improved, Burtman believes players benefited from the host family experience.

“It gave that family feeling to some of these younger players,” said Burtman, who is now director of promotions and entertainment for the team that replaced the Suns in Hagerstown, the Flying Boxcars of the independent Atlantic League.

Until recently, Campbell owned two Jimmy John’s sandwich franchises in Hagerstown. And in April 2017, he was working on a sponsorship deal with the Suns when Burtman approached him at the club’s meet the team night.

“You want to be a host family? We’re short on houses,” Campbell recalled Burtman saying.

“What is a host family?” Campbell replied. “I have no idea.”

Campbell lived 11 miles south of Hagerstown, in Boonsboro, Maryland. His house had four bedrooms and a great room with enough space for two or three more beds. The basement, as Soto said, was a natural gathering spot for players and family members after games.

Soto, who received a $1.5 million bonus when he signed with the Nationals in 2015, owned a minivan that he used to transport teammates and their equipment. Adderling Ruiz, a mentor to Soto, did much of the cooking, preparing mountains of rice and beans and chicken for his teammates and the Campbell family.

“I put on a lot of weight that year,” Campbell said.

Soto’s dedication to his craft was evident. While playing cards, he would take out a resistance band and continue working. And while Campbell and his family initially were not aware that Soto was a top prospect, they quickly figured it out.

“It was pretty cool to see his growth in not only baseball but in being a superstar,” Campbell said.

Little changed after Soto left the Nationals. Campbell visited Petco Park with family members when Soto was with the San Diego Padres. He also attended the New York Yankees’ home opener last season. Campbell said once or twice a year Soto would leave him and his guests batting practice passes. He refrains from asking for tickets, preferring to buy his own rather than impose.

“A lot of times they come and don’t even tell me,” Soto said. “I turn around and I see them. I’m like, Oh. They really respect my space.”

The minor league CBA in 2023 increased the minimum annual salary for players in Low-A to $26,200 from $11,000. When Soto played at that level five years earlier, the minimum was in the $6,000 to $8,000 range. So when Campbell learned Soto signed for $765 million with the Mets, he had a two-word reaction.

“Hell yeah,” he said.

“Because I was involved with minor league players so much, I hope every player takes as many dollars as he can from any owner,” Campbell said. “Like, take it. Before they increased the minimum wage for players, it was nothing. If you didn’t sign with a signing bonus, you didn’t have any money.”

Campbell, though, was not entirely happy.

He grew up in Mystic, Connecticut, a town he said was divided between fans of the Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The Yankees were his team and remained his team even as his father, who was in the military, moved the family up and down the East Coast.

Once Campbell started hosting players, he needed to cool it a bit — he wore a Yankees cap to a game in which the Suns faced a Yankees affiliate, only to hear from the players in his home, “Uh-uh, you can’t.” But by the time Soto landed with the Yankees for the 2024 season, Campbell was free to return to his old allegiances.

“Last year was like the superpeak, can’t get any better,” Campbell said. “And then he signed with the Mets. So this is going to be rough.”

Soto has come a long way since those evenings in the Campbells’ basement. Then again, for the young player who arrived in Hagerstown looking for a GameStop, some things never change.

During spring training, Soto arranged with the makers of Call of Duty to bring video game consoles to the Mets’ clubhouse so the players could try the newest version of the game before its release.

“He’s fun to hang out with,” Campbell said. “He’s charismatic. You’re drawn to him. He’s just a good guy.”