Jonathon Niese is entering only his third full season in the Mets’ rotation, but apparently they’d seen enough to know they want him back for five more.
The lefty starter is reportedly close to agreeing to a five-year extension that will be somewhere in the neighborhood of Texas starter Derek Holland’s $28.5 million deal, according to ESPN.
The Mets were to have still had Niese under control for the next four seasons, but the team is betting on Niese having been worth much more if the team had gone to arbitration on a yearly basis instead.
Niese won’t turn 26 until after the season is over and has relatively few innings on his arm. The most innings he’s thrown in a season is 173 2/3 in his first full season as a starter in 2010.
He was 11-11 with a 4.20 ERA?in 26 starts in 2011, but was shut down in August with a muscle strain in his right side.
Maybe the Mets see it as a good omen that Niese was born Oct. 27, 1986 — the same night they clinched their last World Series.
