The Colorado Rockies have worked out a deal to hire Cleveland Browns chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta, according to ESPN. DePodesta, age 52, originally was with the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and New York Mets before being hired by the Browns in 2016 to run their analytics program.
In July of 2021, DePodesta signed a five-year contract with Cleveland in an effort to use numbers and analytics to find quality players to improve the roster.
It was widely known that DePodesta was the real-life
person portrayed by Jonah Hill in the baseball movie “Moneyball” regarding how the Oakland Athletics used statistics and numbers in order to find productive players on the cheap.
DePodesta is now returning to baseball, where he has reportedly been hired to run the Rockies’ baseball operations department. This season, Colorado finished with a 43-119 (.265) record, 50 games out of first place in the National League West Division. The team allowed a league-high 1,021 runs scored. His job duties include turning around a stagnant franchise.
Cleveland is known to be the second most active analytics club behind the Philadelphia Eagles.
Many believe that DePodesta was a major player in the decision to trade for Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson for that mammoth $230 million contract that was 100% guaranteed. At the time, Watson was a three-time Pro Bowler and had just thrown for 4,840 yards, 33 touchdowns with just seven interceptions, converted 221 first-down conversions, and had a completion percentage of 70.2% for a team that had only won four games.
Going back to baseball should be the easy part for DePodesta. Turning around a very horrid roster will not be. The Rockies’ current team obviously is bad, and their farm system is not the greatest.
With a 14-loss season by the Browns last year and already 2-6-0 this season, the accusations of who would go first began to circulate on social media, as well as the various sports radio shows and podcasts.
Maybe DePodesta saw the writing on the wall that somebody had to be blamed for all this bad football.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski is a two-time NFL Coach of the Year, and the 2025 draft class has been heralded as one of the best for a long while under GM Andrew Berry. Perhaps there is only a small chance that either one of these men would be let go after the season. If double-digit losses are once again the end result, somebody has to go. And Black Monday is usually the choice of most clubs.
Who would become the first to get fired with the Browns? Maybe DePodesta’s name was on top of the list. Did he leave to get ahead of this?
“That is certainly an interesting angle; it certainly wasn’t working,” stated Josh Aul of The Dawgs Podcast. “Maybe for DePodesta the writing was on the wall. At the end of the season if it continues the way it has been, somebody has to go. (Andrew) Berry had a very good draft class and (Kevin) Stefanski has those two Coach of the Year honors. Now maybe, it will be somebody else who will get fired.”
After 20 years in Major League Baseball, DePodesta came to the Browns in 2016. He was touted as an analytics guru who focused on the intangibles in sports instead of simply gazing at key stats.
And since DePodesta’s hiring, the Browns have followed the analytics trajectory to a tee.
Analytics is about seeking out information and being sort of ruthless about having a process on that. And the Browns are pretty ruthless about going to take value where they can get it.
No other NFL club has spent as much money on players as the Browns since DePodesta’s tenure. Yet, no division titles, two playoff seasons, three playoff games played with a single win, and not even close to looking like a Super Bowl contender.
It has been pointed out how Stefanski, owner Jimmy Haslam, and GM Andrew Berry all align. But where did DePodesta fit into this alignment?
DePodesta’s role was to help this franchise on the margins. He was to provide a way to “out-analytics” the competition and help the Browns’ play above their talent level.
The Watson trade propelled the Browns backwards years. All of a sudden, first and second round draft picks were no longer available to help infuse youth into the roster. The team began picking in rounds 3-4 as their talent net. All the while, the Texans were picking twice in the first round, and have won their division two years in a row, while Cleveland is picking second overall with 14 losses under its belt.
Free-agent signings haven’t fulfilled their expectations. Guys like DT Dalvin Tomlinson and S Juan Thornhill were brought in to solve specific issues, but then contributed to the problem with sub-par play. Both were signed to huge contracts. WR Marquise Goodwin, RB D’Onta Foreman, OT Hakeem Adeniji, KRs Nyheim Hines and Jakeem Grant, and DT Taven Bryan, never amount to anything for the team.
But the Watson debacle was too much to ignore. Ownership cannot overlook it while at the same time keeping a fanbase content. If the 2025 season continues to spiral downward, somebody would have to be blamed. At least now, DePodesta could get ahead of it and find another good-paying job instead of a pink slip.
Now, it’s somebody else’s head that could roll after Week 17.
The “Moneyball” A’s ballclub featured in the movie never won the World Series, and in fact, the team is no longer playing in Oakland. The Browns never won anything under DePodesta and are, technically, moving out of Cleveland soon.
