Tremendous news last night, as Bengie Molina rejected the Mets’ one-year, $5 million offer and returned to the San Francisco Giants.

This was hailed by many as a victory for Mets fans who are sabermetrically-inclined, and it is, to an extent- Molina’s negatives include such things as poor defensive metrics and a putrid on-base percentage. But it is hardly takes a sophisticated statistical bent to be happy that the Mets didn’t sign a 35-year-old with bad knees to a one-year deal, let alone the multi-year deal it would have taken to actually land the S.S. Molina.

So what now? Well, the Mets suddenly have an extra $5 million to spend that they didn’t think they’d have. And that is tremendous news, since that money was going to go to a player who doesn’t help them- and now the remaining options are players who actually can.

If the money goes toward signing an upgrade at second base- think Orlando Hudson or Felipe Lopez- suddenly the Mets have done their young pitcher Mike Pelfrey a tremendous favor, not to mention helping any other pitcher on the staff who induces at least some ground balls (in other words, all of them).

If it goes toward Carlos Delgado at first base, the Mets have added a potentially significant bat to a lineup that could use it, particularly during the time Carlos Beltran misses. I guess it goes without saying, though, that if Delgado is at first defensively, improving from Castillo at second base becomes that much more important.

Most encouragingly, the Mets seem unwilling to go beyond two years for the services of Joel Pineiro, and would rather focus on a one-year combo of Ben Sheets and John Smoltz. The two represent a potential high-yield reward, while not locking the Mets into mediocrity long-term (think 3/30 for Randy Wolf).

No matter how they spend this money, chances are it will help the team more than spending it to downgrade from Henry Blanco to Bengie Molina.

When Molina signed with the San Francisco Giants, the Mets won the lottery.

Howard Megdal is the Editor-in-Chief of The Perpetual Post. He covers baseball, basketball and soccer for Capital New York, MLBTradeRumors.com, New York Baseball Digest and has written for ESPN.com as well as numerous other publications. He is the Poet Laureate for SBNation New York. His book about Jewish baseball players, “The Baseball Talmud,” is available for purchase on Amazon.com and wherever books are sold. His next book, "Taking The Field", is available for pre-order on Amazon.com and will publish in May 2011.

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Tags: Ben Sheets, Bengie Molina, Carlos Delgado, Henry Blanco, Joel Pineiro, John Smoltz, Luis Castillo, New York Mets