The Colorado Rockies gave Kyle Freeland time to adjust. With his three-inning effort against the Diamondbacks on Thursday, the club finally decided to demote the struggling southpaw.

Per a team announcement Friday, the Rockies reinstated Chris Rusin from the 10-day injured list, recalled Jesus Tinoco from Triple-A Albuquerque and optioned both Freeland and Yonathan Daza.

For Freeland, the demotion was merely a formality more than a surprise.

“I thought, honestly, that this was going to happen quite a long time ago,” Freeland said.

The demotion comes the day after Freeland’s aforementioned three-inning ordeal in which he allowed five earned runs including a home run to opposing pitcher, Taylor Clarke. The latest start ballooned his earned run average on the year to 7.13.

In the three starts prior to his demotion, Freeland allowed 15 earned runs in only 8.2 innings and failed to go more than four innings in any of the outings. Across 12 nods this year, he’s registered only three quality starts.

A looming problem for Freeland has been the long ball. On the year, he has given up 16 home runs after giving up 17 apiece in each of the last two seasons. The problems keeping the ball in the park were largely a result of malfunctioning mechanics.

“There are some things in the delivery, for sure, that we’re (going to) work on,” Manager Bud Black said. “I do think there (are) some location standards that we have to get to as far as (Kyle) locating the ball.”

Freeland became the second Opening Day starter for the franchise to be demoted during the season in as many years, joining Jon Gray from 2018.

In his stead, Tinoco, who was acquired as part of the Troy Tulowitzki deal, will give the club another arm in the bullpen. On the year, he’s appeared in 19 games for the Isotopes and has a 5.04 ERA across 25 innings.

The stint for the right-handed youngster will be his first in the majors.

Rusin, who suffered a mid-back strain in spring training and has been working his way back ever since will be on the active roster for the first time in 2019. In his rehab appearances for the Isotopes and Double-A Hartford, the long reliever hurled 13.1 innings and allowed eight earned runs.

For the Rockies, their next off day is Monday, delaying the choice for Freeland’s replacement in the rotation until late next week at the earliest. The demotion of Daza leaves the club with two non-catcher bench hitters.