The Mets officially placed Lucas Duda on the 15-day disabled list this afternoon as he continues to suffer from a back injury. The move clears the way for the activation of Dario Alvarez, who has been promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas.

Alvarez should provide a needed boost to a struggling Mets bullpen. Since being promoted from Double-A Binghamton, he has a 1.08 ERA in 10 appearances with Las Vegas. In 8.1 innings pitched, he has allowed just one run on three hits, striking out 15 and walking just two. It was thought that Michael Conforto would be the player that would be sent down to make way for the left-handed Alvarez, but he will stick around for now.

Duda has missed several games over the past two weeks because of his injury. He did not appear in the final three games of the series against the Rockies and the series opener against Pittsburgh last week, but he came back last Saturday before missing the series finale. Duda returned to the lineup during the team's two-game set at Baltimore and played in yesterday's game at Colorado before departing in the seventh inning.

The hope is that Duda's injury isn't serious enough to keep him sidelined for longer than two weeks, especially with a postseason berth hanging in the balance for the Mets. At the same time, the Mets now have a chance to see what Alvarez can do at the major league level.