Former Pirates top prospect who was traded could've been fit for Opening Day roster

The maddening part of putting a roster together in Pittsburgh is that move can feel perfectly reasonable when it happens — but not long after, it will make you wonder if the Pirates gave up a little more than they realized.

Charles McAdoo is not some random former prospect suddenly reappearing on the radar. When the Pirates sent him to Toronto in the Isiah Kiner-Falefa deal in July 2024, he was still viewed as a legit prospect with some upside. Now he is in Blue Jays camp doing the exact sort of thing that makes a former team squirm a bit. He’s hitting .353 with a 1.097 OPS in 17 spring training at-bats, with six hits, two doubles, a homer, four RBI, and a stolen base.

Pirates can’t ignore what Charles McAdoo is doing in Blue Jays camp

The timing is what makes it feel a little more uncomfortable for Pittsburgh. Third base is not exactly buttoned up in a way that lets the Pirates just shrug this off.

One recent Opening Day projection had Jared Triolo starting there, with Nick Yorke also in the mix as a backup option. That is not some disastrous setup, but it is also not such a firm answer that people should stop wondering whether a bat-first player with upside like McAdoo could have at least made this spring a little more interesting.

That is where this starts to feel a little more irritating for Pittsburgh. McAdoo was not some positionless lottery ticket the Pirates happened to move. He was already logging most of his time at third base in 2024, while still bouncing over to right field and first base enough to show some flexibility. Even in a 2025 season that had a few more ups and downs at Double-A New Hampshire, he still found a way to produce 24 doubles, 16 homers, and 34 steals across 121 games.

He still comes with questions. The defense at second and third has been inconsistent, and the expectation on Toronto’s side is still that he probably opens 2026 back in Double-A before maybe working his way to Triple-A Buffalo.

But honestly, that is almost what makes this more frustrating.

Pittsburgh did not need McAdoo to turn into a polished, no-doubt big leaguer for the fit to make sense. They just needed him to be one more real option at a position that still feels more patched together than settled. That is the part that lingers here.

The Pirates dealt from an area that now looks thinner than it probably should. McAdoo may not have stormed his way onto the Opening Day roster, but he absolutely looks like the kind of player who could have made that conversation more complicated. For this front office, that is not exactly a great thing to be reminded of.