(Reuters) - The owners of Major League Baseball's New York Mets received a $40 million (25.65 million pound) loan from a major bank that a source identified as the Bank of America, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The team described the transaction as a "bridge loan" aimed at helping the club as it tries to raise money through the sale of minority stakes in the franchise, the report said.

According to the newspaper, a spokesman for the Mets' owners said the loan had been approved by Major League Baseball and the other banks to which they are already indebted.

In September, the Mets ended talks to secure a $200 million investment from hedge fund manager David Einhorn, clouding the team's future as its losses and legal bills mounted.

The team has been losing tens of millions of dollars a year, and its problems were compounded by a $1 billion lawsuit by Irving Picard, the trustee seeking money for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

(Reporting by Soham Chatterjee in Bangalore; Editing by Gary Hill)