When Jake Smolinski was going up and down between the major and minor leagues last year, the Oakland A’s outfielder lived entirely out of a suitcase, staying at hotels on both ends. He’s had it worse, though: one year, in the Miami Marlins minor-league system, he and two teammates shared a tiny office in a relative’s home.

Now, Smolinski is the envy of all: He is staying in a guest house in Danville, rent free, the most recent of A’s players to be taken in by sports agent Matt Sosnick and his wife, Erica.

“It’s been great,” Smolinski said. “And it’s difficult when you go up and down, trying to figure out what you’re going to do. Rent (and) leases are difficult and very pricey. It’s nice to have something so open and available.”

Baseball players have wild stories about trying to find housing when suddenly called up or sent down with little knowledge of how long their stay will be. A stint in the majors could last one day or several weeks. And while the minimum big-league salary is $507,500, minor-leaguers are paid far less.

A Triple-A player without previous big-league service time makes $10,000 to $15,000 a year to start, and even after six years, can still hover around $75,000. Factor in the cost of living in the Bay Area — rents averaged $3,252 in San Francisco and $2,411 in Oakland in May, according to Axiometrics — and the hunt can be especially daunting.

That’s why when another Sosnick client, A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell, was called up last month from the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Nashville, he was dismayed to find Smolinski already had dibs on the Sosnick home.

“I was like, ‘Dang it, Smolinski is already staying there?’” Maxwell said, recalling that Smolinski jokingly offered to share. “Smo said, ‘Hey man ... big bed!’ I was like, ‘Um, no thanks.’”

To the Sosnick’s kids, 6-year-old twins Josh and Lily, and 3-year-old Liam, Smolinski is Uncle Jake.

“Jake is the best, he’s like a family member,” Sosnick said. “We have a lot of fun, we have deep conversations about things, it’s like a big-brother/little-brother thing. He’s a good, loyal person. For us, it’s a bonus. It’s not like we’re extending ourselves, it enriches us to have him here.”

Maxwell spent an offseason living with the Sosnicks — he’s Uncle Bruce — and was popular because he’d cook breakfast.

“Erica was always caught off guard because I was up so early, I’d go run and then cook by the time they got up. It became a running joke,” Maxwell said.

Other A’s to live with the Sosnicks include first baseman Kyle Blanks, who moved in with his wife and newborn, and outfielder Jason Pridie, who often borrowed Erica’s car to go to the ballpark — he’d pull into the player lot in an Escalade with “MRS SOZ” plates.

Other players have lived with Sosnick’s business partners, Paul Cobbe and Adam Karon. The Rockies’ David Dahl and the Twins’ Max Kepler have crashed with Cobbe. Daulton Jefferies, an A’s 2016 draft pick and Cal alum, is among those to live with Karon.

Smolinski, 27, is a perfect fit for the Sosnick household. He reads to the kids when the A’s have day games, he goes swimming with them and he entertains them.

“Any time they want to play weird things — like Josh has got a whole box of action figures and he has this game where he puts one behind his back and gives me hints and I have to guess which one it is,” Smolinski said. “Little stuff like that, they really enjoy having someone else to play with them. And it gives Matt and Erica a little buffer. They’re just wonderful people. I enjoy being around a family and they’re a great family to be around.”

Not all of Sosnick’s clients are so lucky. He had five players traded within an hour of each other at the trade deadline on Aug. 1, including Matt Moore, who went from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Giants, and Jay Bruce, who went from the Cincinnati Reds to the New York Mets. Both had to scramble to find housing in two of the most expensive markets in the country.

A’s rookie third baseman Ryon Healy also was affected by the deadline: When Oakland traded Josh Reddick, Healy lost his room at Reddick’s house in Walnut Creek and is now living in a hotel both at home and on the road, which is fairly typical for players who come up later in the season.

That means they never have more than what they can carry from city to city, although Healy is fortunate to have his truck in the East Bay, so he can stash stuff there. Last year, Smolinski left his truck in Texas after the A’s claimed him on waivers in June.

Other players have their own housing work-arounds. Reliever Chris Smith took a 33-foot trailer with him to Nashville, and his wife and three daughters spent the summer with him at a KOA campground. Andrew Triggs, who has bounced between Oakland and Nashville eight times this season, lives with his parents when in Nashville.

“I’ve got the sweetest situation,” said Triggs, who crashes at a buddy’s place in San Francisco when he’s up with the A’s, or at a hotel when the team plays a night game and then a day game.

Staying with host families — a fairly common occurance in the low-minors — can also be a real crap shoot.

Reliever Daniel Coulombe lived on a soybean farm in Midland, Mich., and reliever Ryan Dull was with a family in Midland, Texas, that up and went on vacation, leaving him with five dogs to look after, one of which was an escape artist. “There were multiple times we were going up and down alleys in Midland trying to catch her,” Dull said.

The A’s pick up a week’s worth of hotel and living expenses if needed when a player is called up, and as well as covering costs incurred on the departure end, such as breaking leases or the remainder of the month’s rent.

Still, a nice, stable and best of all, free, place to stay is a massive bonus for any player. So maybe now that Moore is with the Giants, and Smolinksi and Maxwell up with the A’s, Sosnick should put in bunk beds?

“Huge slumber party, I love it,” Maxwell said with a laugh. “With Sosnick, it’s not much of a client relationship, he’s family — it’s not business. That’s the kind of guy he is, he’s always reaching to help, he’s very generous, his family is amazing, it’s fun. And we would do the same thing for him.”

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @susanslusser