In hiring Paul DePodesta, the Colorado Rockies did two things. First, they pulled of the coup of the offseason. Second, they got someone who knows who to turn small market baseball teams into big-time winners.

But they’re also getting a baseball leader with some immense baggage. The Rockies were baseball’s worst team last season with 119 losses. He’s leaving the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, a franchise one could argue was the NFL’s worst during his 10-year tenure as chief strategy officer.

It’s fair to ask if DePodesta, now more than 15 years removed from leading the Los Angeles Dodgers and more than 20 years removed from his “Moneyball” days with the Athletics, still has it? A look at his time with the Browns must leave Rockies fans asking that question.

Paul DePodesta with the Cleveland Browns

Jeff Lange via Imagn Content Services, LLC

When DePodesta was hired, he was coming off a stretch as the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was 31 years old, and he was the fifth-youngest GM in baseball history. But he only lasted five seasons when he was fired by then-owner Frank McCourt. He bounced around as a vice-president with the San Diego Padres and the New York Mets before he landed with the Browns.

The hope was that DePodesta’s ways in baseball might translate to a franchise like the Browns, which has struggled overall since it was rebooted back in 1999. The Browns had two winning seasons and made the playoffs in 2020 and 2023. But they also won just one game in his first two seasons, including an 0-16 season in 2017. The quarterback position remained a constant struggle as the franchise continued to miss in the draft and in free agency.

Then the Browns made perhaps the worst contract blunder in NFL history. They traded three first-round picks, a third-round pick and two fourth-round picks for quarterback Deshaun Watson, who missed all of the 2021 season due to allegations of sexual misconduct. Cleveland made the controversial decision to sign Watson to a fully guaranteed $230 million deal over five years. He’s played in 19 games for the Browns and hasn’t played this season due to injuries.

That is DePodesta’s cross to bear as he joins the Rockies, who don’t have nearly as much money to spend as the Browns or any other NFL team. In fact, Colorado’s payroll projects to be among the lowest in baseball in 2026. But he has experience with that too. While with the Athletics as assistant general manager to Billy Beane, they helped push analytics and sabermetrics into the mainstream, which came to be known as “Moneyball.”

The Rockies hope they’re getting that DePodesta and not the one that led the Browns for a decade.