Jon Niese is a young starting pitcher with the New York Mets. He's the guy who got a nose job for aesthetic reasons at the request of Carlos Beltran. Just glancing at his Rotoworld page, it seems Niese was involved in more than a few trade rumors last December, even though the Mets insisted they weren't trying to deal him. Based on today's evidence, they probably weren't. Because on Wednesday, the Mets agreed to terms with Niese on a five-year contract extension. Adam Rubin:

New York Mets left-hander Jon Niese has agreed to a five-year, $25 million deal with two team options that can raise the value to $52 million, according to two sources.

The completion of the contract is pending a physical. Niese would have been under the team's control for another four seasons before the deal.

Niese was set to become a free agent after the 2015 season. Now the Mets have bought out at least one of his free-agency years, and possibly three of his free-agency years. Regarding that potential $52 million total value, Jon Heyman presents conflicting information, but the difference isn't huge and we'll find out the truth shortly. The Mets hold two options, and each option is worth a lot.

This contract extension is basically the Derek Holland contract extension. There are a lot of similarities between Niese and Holland, so it shouldn't come as a shock that they're getting similar deals. This contract extension has also been rumored for some time, so it isn't exactly coming out of the blue.

Niese is a 25-year-old southpaw with nearly 400 innings of major-league experience. As a full-time starter the last two seasons, he's posted a 4.30 ERA, an 89 ERA+, and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.7. Niese's peripherals suggest that his ERAs should be better, and one should expect that the Mets are aware of that. They're not a dumb organization. Even the dumbest organization is still a very smart organization. It knows more about baseball than you do!

As one Jon Niese fun fact, his ground-ball rate last season ranked between Tim Stauffer's and Rick Porcello's. As another Jon Niese fun fact, his first name is Jonathon, so it's good that he goes by Jon, because Jonathon is stupid. I don't know if I was supposed to editorialize in here. Hold on one second.