NL East Notes: Nola, Braves, Nationals

The Phillies announced today that righty Aaron Nola has been placed on the 10-day DL due to a strained lower back. “After receiving treatment over the last few days, the symptoms improved, but he still felt some tightness during his side session yesterday,” GM Matt Klentak said in a press release. “Our hope and expectation is that this will not be a lengthy DL placement and that Aaron will miss only one or two starts.” Nola joins right-hander Buchholz on the disabled list, thus creating a temporary avenue for another of the Phillies’ upper-level arms to get a look in the Majors. Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer and MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki both suggest that right-hander Nick Pivetta (originally acquired in exchange for Jonathan Papelbon) could be the preferred option to start in Nola’s place (Twitter links).

More from the NL East…

• Earlier today, the Braves traded veteran reliever David Hernandez, who was with the team’s Triple-A affiliate, to the Angels in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution adds a bit of context, tweeting that while Hernandez posted solid numbers in Gwinnett, he did not impress the club to the extent that fellow veteran Jason Motte has to this point while pitching in Triple-A. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, meanwhile, tweets that Hernandez had a May 1 opt-out, so Atlanta decided to move him while it was still possible to get a marginal return. Notably, O’Brien suggests that Motte could soon get a look in Atlanta’s Major League ’pen.
• Nationals manager Dusty Baker confirmed that the team will give Jacob Turner a spot start tonight while Stephen Strasburg is out on paternity leave, as Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes. While Turner’s track record in the Majors isn’t impressive, Baker suggested that the team wasn’t comfortable bringing someone up to make their first Major League start at Coors Field. “We thought about other guys, but we didn’t really want their first start in the big leagues to be in Colorado,” Baker said of that potentially daunting task. “He has big league experience and Stras is having a second child. If not, it would’ve been Stras out there.”