Less than two weeks since being called up from Triple-A Buffalo, infield prospect Charles McAdoo has already checked off a few notable milestones in his brief time as a major leaguer with the Toronto Blue Jays.

First career game: check

First career hit: check

First career home run: check

First career RBI: check

The 24-year-old McAdoo — homering in his first major league game at Camden Yards on May 29 against the Baltimore Orioles — has only played three games with the Blue Jays thus far and has yet to appear in front of 40,000-plus fans at the Rogers Centre. But none of that matters right now.

He’s thrilled just being a part of this group, even as a part-time contributor. Most 13th-round selections never make it to this point in their careers, let alone have a big-league opportunity on a team coming off its first World Series appearance in over three decades — and trying to stay afloat to embark on another magical run this year.

Back when McAdoo first learned that he’d be joining the Blue Jays’ roster, there were a few things he needed to do first: drive to Sahlen Field to pack his bags and make two phone calls. Well, actually, it turned out to be three phone calls.

The first was intended for his mom, Wanda (a track-and-field athlete at the University of California), who missed his call the first few times. Then came his dad, Michael (a college basketball player at Howard University), who “screamed” with excitement at his work. After that, he phoned his older brother, also named Michael (an outfielder at UC Santa Barbara for four seasons), who’s currently overseas with the United States Marine Corps, but he also celebrated emphatically upon learning that Charles was headed to The Show. 

And the athletically driven McAdoo family didn’t have to wait long before celebrating Charles’ first major-league hit and home run, both coming in the same at-bat last month. The right-handed-hitting infielder confirmed that he was able to retrieve his home run ball, thanks to clubhouse attendant Chris Miller, who exchanged it for a signed ball and bat with the kid who made the catch in the right-field stands.

McAdoo also shared that he gave the ball to his mom for safekeeping, since she already owns many of his first professional hits.

The last few years have been quite eventful for McAdoo, both good and not so good. Prior to being traded to the Blue Jays organization in the 2024 Isiah Kiner-Falefa deal, the former Pittsburgh Pirates prospect had been tearing the cover off the ball, slashing an impressive .269/.347/.490 with a 133 wRC+ (100 league average) across his first 27 games that year.

That performance earned him his first invitation to big-league camp for spring training in 2025, despite struggling to a .185/.287/.323 slash line and 79 wRC+, while also striking out 30 per cent of the time over a 37-game post-trade span to conclude the ’24 campaign.

Those woes, unfortunately, followed McAdoo out of the gate last season. He slashed just .193/.273/.261 over his first 33 games, earning a troublesome 60 wRC+. The strikeouts also continued to climb, resulting in a 36.4 per cent clip in that time, compared to his 9.1 per cent walk rate. That’s when the organization opted for a reset and placed him on the development list on May 20, 2025.

McAdoo returned a week later, however, and the results came fast and furious from there. The California native displayed improved plate discipline, reducing his strikeout rate to 24.6 per cent over his final 88 games, which helped fuel his bounce-back .267/.335/.469 slash line and 132 wRC+, paying the way for his 35 extra-base hits — including 15 home runs — and 39 RBIs in that time.

Pausing McAdoo’s third professional campaign was just what he needed to right the ship. He used that week off from game action to refine his approach and simplify things at the plate, which he credits the organization’s director of hitting, Craig Perry, and New Hampshire’s head hitting coach, Mitch Hickabay, for helping him achieve those feats — the latter of whom played an integral role in snapping him out of “that little funk.”

Hunting a specific pitch or area of the strike zone was, essentially, the opposite of McAdoo’s approach during the early stages of the ’25 campaign. By maintaining this game plan, though, he’s been able to tap back into his impressive raw power without sacrificing his ability to earn walks.

Case in point, the young slugger blasted six doubles and eight home runs in 50 games with Triple-A Buffalo before being called up earlier this season, slugging .432 while also posting encouraging walk (14 per cent) and strikeout rates (20.3 per cent). Those are the parts that make him such an intriguing Blue Jays prospect.

It’s also why the organization felt he deserved a big-league promotion when Lenyn Sosa was added to the injured list last month, believing his balanced profile could provide a boost off the bench for an offence averaging just over four runs per game in 2026.

So far, cracking Toronto’s lineup has proven difficult, with his primary positions being first and third base. Relearning second base, a job he manned throughout his three years at San Jose State University and made two starts at with Buffalo earlier this year, has opened his current pathway to the majors — having already started twice in three games at that spot.

Because there’s such a considerable gap in playing second regularly, McAdoo has needed to “shake a little bit of rust off” over these last few weeks. The ball spins much differently off the bat at that position compared to first or third, so he’s had to tweak his reactions and first moves on plays.

But the versatile infielder said he’s feeling increasingly more comfortable each day, and even has ambitions — albeit unlikely ones — of making the occasional appearance at shortstop someday, as he told The Nation Network’s Lindsay Dunn.

That’ll likely be a tough sell as long as Toronto’s infield includes the likes of Andrés Giménez and Ernie Clement. Who knows, though, perhaps one day there’ll be a break-in-case-of-emergency scenario that calls for such an unconventional deployment.

In any case, offering versatility across the entire infield is probably McAdoo’s best avenue to earning playing time on a roster with Kazuma Okamoto and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. holding down the corners moving forward. The more positions McAdoo can play, the better his odds of sticking around will be.

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