Your move, Brian Cashman.

The Red Sox struck first in the AL East arms race by acquiring starting pitcher Andrew Cashner and cash consideration from the Orioles on Saturday. Boston is sending Baltimore minor league infielder Noelberth Romero and outfield prospect Elio Prado, both of whom are in rookie ball.

It is the first major trade-deadline move by one of the AL East contenders. Cashner is 9-3 with a 3.83 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP this season with the last-place Orioles. He joins a defending World Series champion Red Sox team that sits 8 ½ games behind the Yankees in the AL East and just one game out of the second wild-card spot. Adding Cashner, who is a free agent after the season, should allow the Red Sox to move Nathan Eovaldi to the closer role when he returns from the IL to bolster their bullpen.

The Yankees are also in search of pitching help and have recently been linked to Diamondbacks starter Robbie Ray as an option if they can’t acquire top-tier arms such as Madison Bumgarner and Trevor Bauer.

Cashner is 2-5 against the Yankees with a 3.96 ERA in 10 career starts.

Baltimore agreed to send Boston $1,777,839 to cover all but $1,577,000 of the $3,354,839 Cashner is due from his $8 million salary this year. Baltimore also agreed to make contingent payments on some of Cashner’s performance bonuses if he should achieve them.

— With AP