On Monday, the Mets found out that first baseman Lucas Duda would miss significant time with a stress fracture in his back and immediately one of the names that we bounced around was James Loney. Sure enough, the Mets have acquired Loney in a trade with the Padres (he was in Triple-A), Adam Rubin of ESPN New York reports.

Loney, 32, is a rather unexciting addition to the Mets. He hit .280/.322/.357 with four homers and 32 RBI in 104 games for the Rays last season, but failed to make the club out of spring training. He was picked up by the Padres and has been in Triple-A all season, hitting .342/.373/.424 in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League -- and still without great power, only amassing seven doubles and two homers in 158 at-bats.

Prior to this move -- or in conjunction with it -- the Mets decided to play Wilmer Flores at first base and leave youngster Michael Conforto in the outfield. Flores had 16 homers with a 95 OPS+ last season, so there's power potential, but he's still a below-average offensive contributor, especially compared to what most first baseman around the league are expected to do.

With this move, it appears the Mets aren't in the market for anything drastic until Duda comes back, such as trading for Jonathan Lucroy or moving Conforto in from the outfield. Instead, they'll go with the Loney/Flores Band-Aid.

The Mets enter Saturday in a virtual tie for first place in the NL East with the Nationals at 28-19. They are, however, 11th in the NL in runs, 12th in average and 11th in OBP.

Loney will join the Mets fray at first base. USATSI