CHICAGO -- The family of White Sox catcher Geovany Soto is fine and in good spirits in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria's assault on the commonwealth.
But the devastation in Puerto Rico is really significant, as Soto explained on Friday prior to the series opener against the Royals at Guaranteed Rate Field.
"All we can do is just pray and keep the good spirits," said Soto, who mentioned his mother, father, in-laws, cousins and nephews as the members of his family currently in San Juan. But Soto's wife and three kids are with him. "It was unbelievable. You know it's coming.
"It's an island. It's not like you can evacuate and go where? We don't have a road that goes to Florida. It is what it is. We try to do the best that we can do with the preparation that they gave us. After you've done everything, you just kind of brace yourself and keep good spirits, and hope for the best."
Soto mentioned his family basically is playing cards and board games such as monopoly with no water or electricity. He was able to briefly face time with them on Tuesday, but since then there has been no communication.
"I talked to my parents and the toughest part is you have the money, you can buy batteries, but there's nothing left," Soto said. "So, the best thing I could probably do from over here is sending batteries, sending anything that I can think of that's valuable for them right now.
"We need to re-establish the mail, the Fed Ex, and just get everything kind of settled. It's really total destruction right now."
Although his family's house is fine structurally, Soto said there's a lot of debris and trees in the street not to mention power lines that may or might not be live. Rain is still coming down, as his family and the rest of Puerto Rico waits for some normalcy to return.
Usually Soto goes to Puerto Rico one week after the regular season ends and spends his offseason there until Spring Training. But things might be different this year.
"Wait until all the proper help gets to the cities and clears everything up, and then try to see if I can make it down there," Soto said. "But if there's no power, if there's no water, I don't know.
"That's a tough question right now. I have two kids and a toddler so I don't want to put my kids in harm's way. The best that I can do for now is to try to help them out [by] sending batteries, flashlights, everything that I can find, and we'll see in the near future what's the best plan for me and my family."