Yankees: 3 pitching trades Brian Cashman can pull off this offseason

2. Dinelson Lamet

Someone’s going to figure out what the Padres have in Dinelson Lamet. Hopefully, it’s the Yankees.

Dinelson Lamet is probably an anti-Boyd; the best time to obtain him was probably by piquing Trader AJ Preller’s attention sometime during the 2019 season, when the Padres were suffering through another mediocre summer.

Though he sported a 4.07 ERA, Lamet whiffed a remarkable 105 men in 73.0 innings you didn’t notice last year. This year, things have finally come together for Lamet in the shortened sprint, even though his flashier teammates like Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado are stealing most of the headlines and side-eyes.

Lamet, through five starts, has whiffed his trademark 36 men, allowing only 15 hits and a 1.59 ERA through 28.1 innings pitched.

At 28 years old, he should be a cornerstone of the up-and-coming Padres, but Preller has money signs for eyes, and can always seemingly be intrigued by major trade packages and marquee names. It might take a well-established power player like Clint Frazier or Miguel Andujar (or, dare we say … Gary Sanchez) to start these discussions, but Preller is always prepped to listen, with plenty more pitching talent in his personal pipeline.

The more we roll this idea over in our brain, Lamet could be the key to the Sanchez-Realmuto switch we’ve long been advocating for.