3 former NY Yankees players we're glad the NY Mets avoided in free agency

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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.

2) The Mets were right to pass on James Paxton

James Paxton wasn’t an option for the Mets any longer with their rotation filled unless they had some plan to move Adrian Houser to the bullpen. Paxton inked a one-year deal worth $11 million with an additional $1 million available to him. He’ll pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers, or at least hope to.

Paxton’s 19 starts for the Boston Red Sox last year yielded very average results. In 96 innings he was 7-5 with a 4.50 ERA. After missing all of 2022 and tossing just 1.1 innings in 2021, Paxton apparently showed enough for the Dodgers to add him to their super team.

If Luis Severino’s health scares you, Paxton should have you shivering in a fire. He has never made 30 starts in a season with just a pair over 25. Durability is certainly a question. So is ability itself.

Paxton’s career numbers still look solid thanks in large part to how much time he has missed post-2019. Somehow still owning a 3.68 ERA lifetime despite finishing most seasons above it, Big Maple was hopefully never even a consideration for the Mets.

Instead, we got Severino and maybe a better comparison, Sean Manaea. At the very least, Manaea has stayed on the field and can give the Mets relief innings. For Paxton, he has been mostly absent for several years. Even Severino was good in his abbreviated 2022 campaign.

3) The Mets were right to pass on Joey Gallo

We’re going to see Joey Gallo a bit this year. The lab-created and exaggerated version of Dave Kingman and Adam Dunn, Gallo signed a one-year deal worth $5 million to hit below .200 with the Washington Nationals while occasionally popping a home run.

Gallo hasn’t been plagued by injuries in recent seasons. The two-time All-Star had to settle because the last time he finished a year hitting over .200 was in 2019. In fact, that’s his lone season of any length with a batting average above .210.

Recreating the Daniel Vogelbach problem from last year in some ways, Gallo could have at least provided the Mets with some defensive innings. A guy who actually won a pair of Gold Gloves, he’s transitioning into more of a first baseman at this point, but can still offer the Nationals starts in the outfield.

The idea of the Mets using Mark Vientos and DJ Stewart as the DH is frustrating. Worse would have been spending this kind of money on Gallo. The contract he did get from Washington isn’t significant and yet with the alleged budgetary constraints the Mets are under for the remainder of the offseason, it would have been a wasteful amount to pay for a guy who’ll hit below the Mendoza Line.

Fortunately, there was never a whiff of the Mets being rumored to have interest in him. Now, let’s just cross our fingers and hope he doesn’t become one of those guys who ends up killing the Mets.

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