Fried tossed five scoreless innings in Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Nationals, allowing five hits and a walk while striking out seven.
The left-hander has been impressive all spring and now boasts a 16:5 K:BB across 15.1 innings. Fried's path to breaking camp in the rotation is complicated by the fact that the Braves won't need a fifth starter until April 7, which gives Kevin Gausman more time to build up his pitch count after a late start to his spring, but based on performance alone Fried would seem to have earned a spot. The same could be said for Touki Toussaint and Kyle Wright, however. The club could well keep all three young arms on the 25-man roster, using whomever isn't starting in long relief, but a demotion to Triple-A Gwinnett to stay stretched out also remains on the table.