The Hallway to Two Hundred Fifty

The Hallway

In a tough Santo Domingo neighborhood, Belkis Pacheco kept her son indoors. So Juan Soto made a game from what the house held — crumpling paper into taped balls and hitting them down the hallway, running bases that existed only in the running. His father, Juan Soto Sr., a salesman who caught in a local men's league, threw him bottle caps and scraps of paper to sharpen his hands. Sometimes the bat was a bottle. Friends called the boy Little Robbie. He idolized the Dominican stars Manny Ramirez and Robinson Cano.

The elder Soto told his naturally right-handed son to bat left-handed. He told him the batter's box belonged to him. In A-ball, Soto jumped after taking a pitch, and teammates asked about it. He refined the moves — the hip swivels, the foot sweeps — into the Soto Shuffle. His parents also insisted he take English classes growing up, to prepare for a professional baseball career abroad. He signed with the Nationals at sixteen for $1.5 million after scout Johnny DiPuglia paid a homeless man twenty dollars to clear a rundown batting cage at a showcase and watched him launch balls. The family honored the handshake despite higher offers.

Two Fifty

On May 15, 2026, Soto hit his 250th career home run — eight years to the day after his major-league debut with the Washington Nationals on May 15, 2018. He was 27, an outfielder in his second season with the Mets.

The career has run through four teams. Five seasons in Washington, where he won a World Series in 2019. Two in San Diego. One with the Yankees. And now the Mets, in his ninth season. He has six Silver Slugger awards, five All-Star selections, and a career on-base percentage of .416. His career home run total now stands at 265, with 21 this season.

Reporting: Britannica, The Athletic. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.