Nearly one month after Paul DePodesta was put in charge of the front office for the Colorado Rockies, he has found a new general manager.
Per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin, the Rockies are hiring Josh Byrnes to be their general manager.
Jon Heyman of MLB Network and the New York Post confirmed the move.
Coming off three consecutive 100-loss seasons, including a franchise-record 119 losses in 2025, the Rockies have been hard at work rebuilding their organizational infrastructure.
Bill Schmidt, who had been with the organization since 1999 and took over as general manager in 2021, stepped down in October. Bud Black’s nine-year tenure as manager ended during the season when he was fired on May 11 after a 7-33 start.
DePodesta was hired as president of baseball operations on Nov. 7. The move marked his return to MLB after spending nine years as chief strategy officer for the Cleveland Browns in the NFL.
The 52-year-old DePodesta is best known as one of the key subjects in Moneyball for his work in helping to build the early-2000s Oakland Athletics teams.
Byrnes has been working in MLB front offices for 32 consecutive seasons dating back to 1994. He had a three-year stint with the Rockies from 2000 to ’02 as their assistant general manager under Dan O’Dowd.
Since the 2014 season, Byrnes has been one of the key lieutenants for the Los Angeles Dodgers under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. His official title was senior vice president of baseball operations in which he oversaw the scouting and player development.
No team in MLB has been better over the past decade at player development than the Dodgers, while the Rockies have been arguably one of the worst franchises in that regard.
The DePodesta-Byrnes tandem should have plenty of runway to get the Rockies back on track. It’s going to take time for them to do it, but the track record suggests they are capable of making it happen.