3 ex-Yankees who signed this week we're glad the Mets avoided

Sitting on your hands isn’t always a bad thing. After shoveling snow it can help warm them. In a theater with someone much taller sitting in front, it can provide a small boost. In MLB free agency, getting caught sitting on your hands is a good thing when the deals aren't so great. This week, the New York Mets have been doing a lot of hand sitting as free agents find deals we should be grateful they pass on.

Coincidentally enough, each of these guys suited up for the New York Yankees. Thankfully, they weren’t among the ones brought in this offseason.

1) The Mets were right to pass on Aroldis Chapman

An underrated quality about the Mets offseason has been how they’ve turned their attention away from controversial figures. Plenty of them are out there just a signature on a contract away from calling Queens home. We don’t need the baggage of anyone with off-field issues. It’s hard enough rooting for players who don’t perform well. When factors bigger than the game itself enter the picture, it’s near impossible to cheer for someone with a history.

Aroldis Chapman has a domestic violence suspension in his past. While taking place well before MLB and the rest of the sports world woke up to this issue, many know better than to forget why the Cincinnati Reds felt the need to trade him in the first place.

Aside from the morality of it, Chapman wasn’t the right bullpen arm for the Mets to target anyway. At $10.5 million with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he’s a pricy lefty reliever whose effectiveness is in question. He was much better while buried with the Kansas City Royals last year than he ever was with the Texas Rangers for their championship run.

Chapman was never all too realistic for the Mets anyway with their best setup man right now, Brooks Raley, also throwing from the left side. A righty would be far more preferred. Let’s make it one didn’t essentially give up on the Yankees either.