The Colorado Rockies hired Paul DePodesta as their new head of baseball operations on Friday.
DePodesta, 52, is a longtime baseball executive and a former chief strategy officer for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.
He won’t have long to wait to get started, given the MLB general managers meetings begin Monday in Las Vegas.
DePodesta’s first task, however, will be to find a manager.
The Rockies remain the lone MLB team without a skipper. They fired Bud Black in May and did not replace interim manager Warren Schaeffer.
DePodesta replaces Bill Schmidt, who stepped down on Oct. 1 following the Rockies’ majors-worst 43-119 season.
It was their third consecutive 100-loss campaign — the first three for a franchise that played its first game in 1993. Schmidt became interim general manager on May 3, 2021 before being promoted to GM on Oct. 2 of that year.
DePodesta was an assistant to Athletics general manager Billy Beane during the “Moneyball” era and served as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ general manager from 2004-05.
“Today is an exciting day for the Rockies organization as we welcome Paul as our new president of baseball operations,” Rockies owner Dick Monfort said in a statement. “Paul was the very first person we interviewed, and throughout our conversations with him, Walker and I were both intrigued by his understanding of the game, his positive attitude, his process-based mindset and his influence on the game. This is a special guy with great vision and a great plan. He is a winner and he is going to win in Colorado.”
DePodesta also was a special assistant for baseball operations for the San Diego Padres (2006-10) and vice president of player development and amateur scouting for the New York Mets (2011-15).
“Paul’s previous work in MLB set the foundation for many aspects of the way the game is analyzed today and we are thrilled for him to be a key figure in our future. Under his leadership, we will evolve the Colorado Rockies into what we know will be an exciting new era,” Rockies EVP Walker Monfort said in a statement. “Hiring Paul is an essential first step to the evolution of our baseball department, and we’re confident that he will not only maximize our current personnel but will also bring in additional leaders from outside the organization to help lead us forward.”
DePodesta has been with the Browns since 2016.
“We want to thank Paul for his contributions to the Cleveland Browns over the past nine and a half seasons,” Browns managing and principal partners Dee and Jimmy Haslam said in a statement. “Paul’s humble and egoless approach encouraged a culture of teamwork and collaboration. He helped modernize our research and analytics departments and his broad background in professional sports brought a different perspective to our organization.
“We appreciate the valued role he played in our organization as a member of our leadership team and wish him all the best in his return to Major League Baseball with the Colorado Rockies.”
