Cleveland Browns executive Paul DePodesta is leaving his position as Chief Strategy Officer for the Cleveland Browns to return to Major League Baseball as the Head of Baseball Operations for the Colorado Rockies.
The Cleveland Browns are losing one of the more renowned executives in sports.
Paul DePodesta, will soon be leaving his position as Chief Strategy Officer with the Cleveland Browns to get back into the league that made him famous – Major League Baseball.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal broke the news earlier today stating that DePodesta will be the Head of Baseball Operations with the Colorado Rockies – a team that is in desperate need of change.
In 2025, they held the worst record in all of MLB with a 43-119 record and according to Rosenthal, were on a mission to hire a top executive this offseason.
And they weren’t short of candidates. Apparently, the Rockies were deciding between DePodesta, Arizona Diamondbacks’ Assistant General Amiel Sawdaye and Cleveland Guardians’ Assistant GM Matt Forman.
Both clubs can sigh in relief as their highly regarded up-and-coming executives stay on board for now.
Rosenthal goes on to explain that DePodesta quickly rose to the top of the list due to his willingness to work with the staff that has already been in place in Denver.
“DePodesta, according to sources, had been talking to the Rockies for about a month… Some involved in the team’s hiring process said one deterrent for potential candidates was ownership’s desire for the new head of baseball operations to retain a number of staffers. DePodesta apparently found that condition acceptable, but surely will make some hires of his own.”
DePodesta is one of the best analytic minds in sports, and is so revered, that Jonah Hill played him in the movie “Moneyball.”
In previous stops, he had served as the AGM in Oakland to Billy Beane, and shortly after was named as the General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the time, he was the fifth-youngest General Manager in the history of Major League Baseball.
But because of an inability to find any quality managerial candidates in 2004 after Jim Tracy was let go, the Dodgers owner at the time Frank McCourt relieved him off his duties.
Down the road, he also had stops in San Diego with the Padres as a special assistant for baseball operations and in New York with the Mets as the Vice President of Player Development and Scouting.
He held that role for six seasons, and contributed to the Mets reaching the 2015 World Series.
That’s when he found his way to Cleveland. A Browns franchise that has long lived in the basement, felt that the addition of DePodesta, even though being a baseball guy, would help how their franchise was run.
However, in the 10 seasons that DePodesta was the CSO in Cleveland, the Browns had held a 56-99-1 record, including awarding Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed $230 Million contract over five seasons – one that the franchise is gravely regretting.
The hire comes right before MLB’s general manager’s meetings in Las Vegas on November 10.