But that's when you get when you do "on the margins" acquisitions. Manea/Severino were that in 2024, and it obviously worked. However, the lone "on the margins" guy was Montas, and he faltered.
The point is next year, you have to get a proven good SP(maybe 2). As great as McClean(and to a lesser degree Sproat), you can't expect him to be great next year, as young players go thru peaks and valleys. Looking at next year, the only SP who's been good the last two years is Peterson, and even he has been ass in the last two months(before he was dominant til July).
The Mets have a surplus of young MLB infielders, build a trade package around Mauricio and Christian Scott for Mitch Keller. Keller isn't a star, but he does several things the Mets desperately need.
He has consistently posted up 30+ starts in the last 3 years; Keller eats up innings(170IP avg over 3 years), and he's going to give you competitive starts(hardly any 3/4 innings games with 4 ER

)