The Rockies have a new head of baseball operations.
Colorado has hired former athletic director Paul DePodesta for the job as the franchise looks to turn its fortunes around. Joel Sherman of The Post reported this on Thursday.
DePodesta, who spent nearly two decades in front offices in the major leagues, has worked for the NFL’s Browns as Chief Strategy Officer since 2016 after making the shocking jump from baseball to football.
He served stints in front offices for the then-Indians, A’s, Dodgers, Padres and Mets, for whom he served as vice president of player development and scouting under general manager Sandy Alderson from 2010 to 2016.
DePodesta is perhaps best known for being a featured character in Michael Lewis’ best-selling book “Moneyball,” when he was A’s GM Billy Beane’s right-hand man during the dawn of baseball’s sabermetrics era. Jonah Hill’s Peter Brand character in the film version is partially based on DePodesta.
He will now have a big job in Denver with the struggling Rockies.
Colorado hasn’t had a winning season since 2018 and is coming off one of the worst three-year stretches in recent MLB history, losing 101 or more games in all three years.
Last season, the Rockies lost 119 games, which tied for the third-most losses in a single season since 1961, the year MLB went to a 162-game season.
Executives have long struggled to put a winning team on the field with the mile-high digs of the Rockies.
Since their debut as an expansion franchise in 1993, the Rockies have made the postseason just five times.
The situation isn’t all that different from the Browns, who had endured eight consecutive losing seasons when DePodesta joined the franchise in 2016.
However, things haven’t gotten much better in Cleveland with DePodesta in tow, having posted just two winning seasons in eight full seasons since then.
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