Colorado Rockies notebook: Five things we learned from Kyle Freeland and Bud Black today

But Freeland’s return still is not imminent

Freeland said that he, Bud Black, and head trainer Keith Dugger “haven’t exactly mapped” out the timetable for his return.

However, when Bud Black spoke to the media later, he said that, since his bullpen went well, Freeland may face some of the Rockies “back up players” next week, during the Rockies next homestand.

If that goes well, they will determine if he needs one more of those or if he’s good to go to the minor leagues on a rehab assignment (the season starts for most minor league teams next week).

So, while they would not give an approximate date, that timeline would likely put Freeland’s return around late May or early June, if all goes well and depending on how many rehab starts the Rockies want.

Whether that happens or not, only time will tell but when Freeland was asked if he’d return in 2021, he said “absolutely.”

The Rockies may think the Giants stole the signs against Austin Gomber on Monday

Rockies manager Bud Black said postgame on Monday that he would have to look at the video to see if Austin Gomber was tipping his pitches. Gomber allowed nine earned runs in 1 2/3 innings.

Gomber said that he didn’t think that he was tipping his pitches but the Rockies went over the video and they definitely found something. What that is? We don’t know.

Here’s what Bud Black had to say about that on Tuesday:

"“We did dive into (video) but I’m going to keep those inside our clubhouse walls and to ourselves,” said Black, “but we did discern some things this afternoon through video so we do look forward to continuing to work on that the next three or four days with Austin because some of the statistical numbers are alarming with guys on second base … I’m not going to tell you exactly what we have. I can’t tell you. Sorry. Who knows? There may be some intel on this Zoom call, there may be some Diamondback people who are following this or whoever … [so] in this case, I’m going to keep the stuff that we identified here within the clubhouse.”"

So is it Gomber tipping his pitches, sign stealing from runners on second, neither, or both?

That’s for you to decide.