The Mets didn’t wait long to replace first baseman Lucas Duda. A little less then a week after they heard the news of Duda having a stress fracture in his back, the Mets have traded for James Loney. They gave the Padres cash in exchange for Loney. Loney has been in AAA in the Padres organization and he was hitting .342 so far this season and last year when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays he hit .280.
There are a number of reasons why this was a good move for the Mets. He will be a good stop gap first baseman that the Mets currently need. Duda will likely be out for at least two months and they could play those two months with just Eric Campbell and Wilmer Flores at first base. With Loney now, the odds are there will become a platoon between him and Flores. When Duda comes back Loney will likely not play much but he will become a nice lefty for the Mets to have off the bench. Alejandro De Aza was the only lefty the Mets had on the bench, Loney would make it two once Duda gets back. There was already talk about the Mets and how they needed to strengthen their bench and Loney will do that when Duda comes back.
It’s nice to see the Mets have a sense of urgency knowing they couldn’t just replace Duda from the guys they had and needed to go outside the organization. They couldn’t keep running Eric Campbell out there every day and then a struggling Wilmer Flores when he gets back from the DL. The speculation of Loney to the Mets started mid week when Joel Sherman reported that they had interest in him. This is a signing that makes a lot of sense and doesn’t have much risk involved. The Mets hope Loney can come here a fill some of the void left by Lucas Duda while hes out. If Loney can hit the .280 he hit last year, you would imagine the Mets would be thrilled with that.
Featured image via Flickr/Keith Allison
