Paul DePodesta, former assistant general manager for the Oakland A’s, was hired by the Colorado Rockies as head of baseball operations on Thursday.

He spent the majority of his career in baseball working as a front office executive, until he took the role as chief strategy officer for the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League in 2016. During his time in baseball, DePodesta has worked with the Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and the New York Mets.

Although he has spent two decades working in the front office of various MLB franchises, he’s most well-known and regarded for his time in Oakland. He joined the Athletics in 1999 after spending the previous three years with the Indians, working as a player development intern and scout.

When he moved to the Bay Area, he worked alongside then-general manager Billy Beane, who is now a senior adviser to owner John Fisher.

DePodesta played a critical role in what is now known as ‘Moneyball.’ Highly-regarded author Michael Lewis wrote and released Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game in 2003, surveying the A’s and their approach to building a team with a small budget. The 2011 film “Moneyball” then depicted Beane, DePodesta and the 2002 Athletics on the big screen.

DePodesta is fictionalized in the movie version, but the character that he’s based on is the one portrayed by Jonah Hill.

In DePodesta’s five seasons in Oakland, the A’s finished above .500 in all of them. That included a record of 479-330 (.592) and a run of four-straight playoff berths from 2000 to 2003 that each ended in the American League Divisional Series.

Payroll

Budget Rank

Record

1999

$24,175,333

25th of 30

87-75 (.537)

2000

$31,971,333

25th of 30

91-70 (.569)

2001

$33,810,750

29th of 30

102-60 (.640)

2002

$39,679,746

28th of 30

103-59 (.636)

2003

$50,260,834

23rd of 30

96-66 (.581)

Furthermore, it included, at the time, the longest winning streak in American League history, when the A’s won 20 games in a row. The record has since been beaten by the 2017 Cleveland team, who won 22 straight. But there was something special about the A’s in 2002.

Whether it was the Big 3 of Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder, or the MVP shortstop Miguel Tejada, the Gold Glove third baseman Eric Chavez, and the likes of Jermaine Dye, Billy Koch, Terrence Long, Ray Durham and Scott Hatteberg. As described in the film, the A’s were an “island of misfit toys.”

That’s what makes the story of the 2002 Oakland A’s so incredibly special. How one of the most successful and storied franchises in all of baseball found a new way to succeed despite having one of the smallest budgets in the game. Now, with the Rockies, he’ll have some new challenges to face with the altitude, but there should be more money available to address those needs.