Nearly a decade after leaving it for the world of football, Paul DePodesta is reportedly returning to the sport that made him famous.
DePodesta plans to leave his current position as the Browns' chief strategy officer to become the Rockies' head of baseball operations, according to a Thursday afternoon report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The 52-year-old has served in his role with Cleveland since Jan. 2016.
Despite not having worked there in over two decades, DePodesta remains heavily associated with the Athletics and the analytics-first approach they helped pioneer in the 2000s. He served as that team's assistant general manager from 1999 to 2004; in 2012, actor Jonah Hill received an Oscar nomination for portraying a character based on DePodesta in Bennett Miller's Moneyball.
In '04, DePodesta became the Dodgers' general manager, only for Los Angeles to fire him after two years. He spent time with the Padres and Mets before moving to the Browns, where he struggled under the supervision of owner Jimmy Haslam.
Colorado is coming off one of the worst Major League Baseball seasons of this century; it finished 43-119 and finished 50 games behind the first-place Dodgers in the National League West race.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rockies Hire Browns Exec of 'Moneyball' Fame as Baseball Operations Head.
