Chris Capuano took his first loss of the year last night after getting off to a 5-0 start. After going 6 1/3 innings allowing four runs (three earned) Capuano raised his ERA to a gaudy 2.34 ERA. Who would pay 2 years and $10 million for that? Wouldn’t you much rather have a guy like Frank Francisco with his 8.59 ERA and 2.045 WHIP at $12 million over two years?

But seriously, Capuano has hit the ground running with the Dodgers in 2012, and they got him at a bargain to say the least. With Alderson not having too much luck with multi-year deals in his Mets tenure (DJ Carrasco and Frank Francisco), Capuano may have been a low-risk, cheap option for the Mets to bring back.

He had a solid year with the Mets in 2011, going 11-12 with a respectable 4.55 ERA in his first full year back from Tommy John surgery. Capuano provides not only a solid middle-of-the-rotation arm, but a positive veteran presence that could solidify an otherwise thin Mets rotation. Just think how better off the Amazin’s would be right now with Capuano taking the rotation spot left behind by Mike Pelfrey instead of Miguel Batista. We may have been talking about a first place team right now.

Of course it is much easier to say what Alderson should have done looking back, and he needed to get a closer. In fact, outside of Jonathon Papelbon, almost none of the available closers from last winter are having success in 2012 across the board. But two year and $12 million is a bit excessive for a guy who has such drastic differences between his performance in first and second halfs over the past few seasons.

The Mets would be better off with a rotation of Santana-Dickey-Niese-Capuano-Gee than having Francisco closing out games. Not to mention, a mixture of Bobby Parnell and Jon Rauch could have handled the duties instead of Francisco. But again, at such an inexpensive price, I see Capuano as a missed opportunity for the Mets and Francisco as a poor alternative and a waste of 12 million dollars.

With money being so tight around this club, you would have thought Sandy would be a bit more wise with his limited budget.