Juan Soto spent 3 weeks with his minor-league host family. Memories endure 7 years later

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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, Md., to begin the 2018 season at Low A. The head of his host family, Brian Campbell, chuckles at the recollection. Soto, baseball’s $765 million man, laughs out loud.

Seven years later, the memories endure.

Soto stayed with the Campbells for only about three weeks in April 2018 before advancing to High A, Double A and the majors in less than a month. Yet, even after signing the richest contract in sports history, he remains in touch with Campbell, who says the outfielder is the same person at 26 he was at 19.

“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. The persisting bond between the two was evident when Campbell consented to be interviewed for this story. Campbell texted Soto for his permission. In less than half an hour, Soto responded with his blessing.

“I know it was a short time, but we had so much fun every single day in that house,” Soto said last weekend while the New York Mets were 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 to ’19. The majority of the players were Latin American.

A 19-year-old Juan Soto in Campbell’s kitchen in Boonsboro, Md., during his three weeks with the Hagerstown Suns. (Courtesy of Brian Campbell)

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. And they loved it. They always had fun with us. We played cards.

“We talked. We sang. Every day we found something different to do. That’s what made it special.”

Times have changed. The Washington Nationals’ affiliate in Hagerstown no longer exists, eliminated in 2020 as part of MLB’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 CBA, 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. He, too, was a host, and planned to house Soto and another player from the Dominican Republic in 2018. Instead, he passed them off to Campbell, putting them with a 27-year-old Dominican catcher, Adderling Ruiz, who could serve as their mentor.

“That’s what was important about the host family situation,” 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. “It gave that family feeling to some of these younger players.”

For Campbell, the question came out of nowhere. Until recently, he owned two Jimmy John’s 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.”

In 2017, Soto’s initial stint with Hagerstown, the team struggled to find host families and rented a house for a number of Dominican players. Soto broke his ankle sliding into home plate a month into the season and left Hagerstown to rehabilitate at the Nationals’ training facility in Viera, Fla. The following year, the team determined it could not afford to rent another house, and increased its efforts to identify new host families.

Campbell lived 11 miles south of Hagerstown, in Boonsboro. His home included 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. Ruiz, nicknamed “Pato,” 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 already 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 the kid was a top prospect, they quickly figured it out.

“He was just crushing balls left and right in Hagerstown,” Campbell said. “You could tell. You just knew by watching him. And the other players would tell me. ‘Come to batting practice, watch this guy.’”

Soto swings during his MLB debut with the Nationals on May 20, 2018, just a month after he and his minor-league teammates were living with the Campbells. (Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)

By May 20, Soto was in the majors. Campbell and a number of Hagerstown players, including the Nationals’ current second baseman, Luis García Jr., attended one of his first games in Washington. Campbell became a Nationals season ticket holder. And Soto, almost immediately, became a sensation.

Early during Soto’s time with the Nationals, Campbell picked him up after a day game in Washington to attend a barbecue at his home, about 70 miles away. They stopped in Frederick, Md., where the Nats’ High-A affiliate was playing. And as they left the field after Soto’s visit, fans sprinted toward him in the parking lot, seeking his autograph. Soto took time to sign, but eventually told Campbell to get the car started. Otherwise, they would never leave.

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

As Soto’s fame grew, Campbell found quieter spots for them to meet. His brother-in-law is an executive with the Atlas Restaurant Group, a company that owns restaurants in Baltimore with private rooms and cigar bars. But frequently, Campbell and his family would just see Soto at different ballparks.

In 2022, shortly before he was traded to the San Diego Padres, Soto caught Campbell’s attention during a game at Nationals Park. One of Soto’s former Hagerstown teammates, Telmito Agustin, was in the stands. Soto tried mouthing the news to Campbell, to no avail. Soto wrote on a baseball, “Telmito is here,” and flipped it to Campbell.

“It was like a baseball text message,” Campbell said.

Little changed after Soto left the Nationals. Campbell visited Petco Park with family members when Soto was with the Padres. He also attended the New York Yankees’ home opener last season. Campbell said once or twice a year Soto will leave him and his guests batting practice passes. He refrains from asking for tickets, preferring to purchase 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 from $11,000 to $26,200. 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, 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. 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, Conn., a town he said was divided between Yankees and Boston Red Sox fans. 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. The host family program was no more.

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

While Soto was a free agent, Campbell asked him to stay away from three teams, telling him, “no Mets, no Red Sox, no Phillies.” Alas, Soto made up his own mind. And when Campbell reached out to him after his decision, it was with mixed feelings.

“He congratulated me,” Soto said. “(But) he was really sad about the contract.”

Specifically, the team.

“He’s another fan. He loves the Yankees. He was really happy when I was there,” Soto said. “But he was excited for what I accomplished.”

How could Campbell not be? Soto has come a long way since he was singing and playing cards in the Campbells’ basement. Then again, for the kid 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 prior to its release.

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

(Top photo of Juan Soto with Brian Campbell and his three sons at Nationals Park: Courtesy of Brian Campbell)

This news was originally published on this post .

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