O's game blog: Tonight's game and trade notes

It appears the Orioles added a solid starting pitching prospect today when they acquired 23-year-old right-hander Yefry Ramírez from the New York Yankees for international bonus slots. From Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Ramirez is having a good year for Double-A Trenton, going 10-3 with an ERA of 3.41 in 18 starts.

Ramirez was added by the Yankees to their 40-man roster last winter in advance of the Rule 5 draft. He ended the 2016 season ranked as New York's No. 23 prospect by Baseball America.

Baseball America wrote this about the right-hander: "Ramírez was initially signed by the Diamondbacks as a position player and spent a season as a hitter in the Dominican Summer League before moving to the mound in 2012. He pitched for three more seasons in the DSL and short-season levels before the Yankees took him in the minor league phase of the 2015 Rule 5 draft.

Ramírez works primarily with three pitches - fastball, curveball and changeup -from a high three-quarters slot. His fastball sat in the low-90s for most of the season but touched 96 mph during Tampa's run to the Florida State League championship series."

The Orioles have optioned him to Double-A Bowie. Ramírez leads the Eastern League in wins, ranks tied for fourth in strikeouts and fifth in ERA.

The Orioles today traded soon-to-be 19-year-old right-handed pitcher Tobias Myers to get infielder Tim Beckham from Tampa Bay. While Beckham could be a candidate to be the Orioles' shortstop next season, and is under team control through 2020, Myers was a hurler that was impressing people on the O's farm this year.

A sixth-round pick in 2016 from Winter Haven (Fla.) High School, Myers was pitching at short-season Single-A Aberdeen and was 2-2 with an ERA of 3.94 in seven starts. He went 2-0 with an 0.60 ERA his first three starts with the IronBirds, but had allowed seven runs in two of his past four starts.

Earlier this season, O's director of player development Brian Graham told me this about Myers: "Myers is a fastball/curveball/changeup pitcher with a live arm and plus fastball. He just has a real good feel for his delivery and is really learning to pitch. He's just made a really nice progression this year."

So the Orioles gave up a promising young arm for a player that they can control through the 2020 season. The 27-year-old Beckham is batting .259/.314/.407 with five doubles, three triples, 12 homers and 36 RBIs in 87 games for the Rays. He became more expendable when the Rays acquired shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria from the Marlins.

Beckham has hit just .160 in 15 games in July after batting .309 in 21 games in June. He is a career .229 hitter in 38 plate appearances at Oriole Park.

Click here for Baseball's America's take on the Myers-for-Beckham trade. Click here to read more from Dan Duquette's session with reporters here this afternoon.

By the way, there will be a game here tonight. The Orioles (50-54) host Kansas City (55-48) to start a three-game series. The Royals are red-hot with 10 wins their last 11 games. They are two games out of first in the American League Central and lead by 2 1/2 games for the AL's second wild card.

Since June 1, Kansas City is 33-18. That ranks as the second-best record in the majors to only the Los Angeles Dodgers at 41-10.

Ubaldo Jiménez (4-7, 6.93 ERA) tonight makes his 17th start of the year. He pitched well his last time out at Tampa Bay, allowing three hits and two runs over six innings.

Left-hander Danny Duffy (7-6, 3.56 ERA) gets the start for the Royals. Duffy is 2-2 with an ERA of 2.41 and batting average against of .207 in eight career games (six starts) versus the Orioles.

These are two of the four winningest clubs in the American League since the 2012 season. The O's rank first with 494 wins in that span and K.C. is tied for fourth with 478.