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Rockies Name Paul DePodesta President Of Baseball Operations

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Nov. 7: The Rockies formally announced DePodesta as their new president of baseball operations today.

“Paul’s previous work in MLB set the foundation for many aspects of the way the game is analyzed today and we are thrilled for him to be a key figure in our future,” executive vice president Walker Monfort said within today’s press release. “Under his leadership, we will evolve the Colorado Rockies into what we know will be an exciting new era. Hiring Paul is an essential first step to the evolution of our baseball department and we’re confident that he will not only maximize our current personnel but will also bring in additional leaders from outside the organization to help lead us forward.”

Nov. 6: The Rockies are reportedly in agreement with Paul DePodesta to run baseball operations. The team has yet to announce the hire, nor whether he’ll be the general manager or president of baseball operations. In any case, it’s a stunning move that brings DePodesta back to baseball after a decade.

DePodesta has worked with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns since January 2016. He has not been the general manager. His relatively vague title has been chief strategy officer. DePodesta has worked under a few GMs in Cleveland — the past five of which have come under executive vice president and GM Andrew Berry. He has seemingly held a high-ranking scouting/player acquisition position without ever having the top spot in football operations.

The Browns have made the playoffs twice in the past eight years and are coming off a 3-14 season that had them in last place in the AFC North. They’re currently 2-6 and at the bottom of the division as they’re amidst another rebuild.

Before his move to the NFL, DePodesta was a high-ranking baseball operations executive. He’s probably most famous for his time as the assistant general manager with the A’s under Billy Beane. That’s due largely to the success of Moneyball, the Michael Lewis book chronicling the A’s being at the forefront of using more advanced player metrics to succeed despite significant budgetary constraints. That was adapted into an acclaimed 2011 film in which Jonah Hill played a composite character that was largely based on DePodesta.

While Moneyball’s popularity makes DePodesta most associated with the A’s, his highest-ranking MLB position came when he accepted the general manager job with the Dodgers in 2004. DePodesta was just 31 years old at the time. He held the role for two seasons, winning 93 games and the NL West title in 2004. The team stumbled to a 71-91 showing the following year, and the Dodgers fired him at the end of the ’05 campaign. DePodesta worked as a high-ranking assistant with the Padres and Mets for the next decade before making the jump to the NFL.

Now 52, DePodesta returns to baseball almost 20 years since his last GM job. He’s facing a monumental challenge. The Rox are coming off a 43-119 season that is tied for the third worst of the modern era. Their -424 run differential was somehow even worse. They were the first team since 1899 to be outscored by more than 400 runs. They scored the second-fewest runs in MLB despite playing half their games at Coors Field. They allowed 122 more runs than the next-closest team.

Despite the abysmal state of the major league roster, the Rockies don’t have the kind of high-end farm system that one would expect from a club that has finished fourth or fifth in the division in seven straight years. Baseball America credited them with two Top 100 prospects on their latest update in August: recent top five picks Ethan Holliday and Charlie Condon. As a result of those consecutive lottery picks, the Rockies are prohibited by the CBA from picking any higher than 10th in the 2026 draft.

There aren’t many buildings blocks on the MLB roster. Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, center fielder Brenton Doyle, and starting pitcher Chase Dollander have the best chance to be key pieces of a long-term contender. They’re all coming off underwhelming seasons. Hunter Goodman was the team’s best player in 2025. He was one of only four primary catchers to hit 30-plus homers, but he’s a 26-year-old coming off a breakout season in which his strikeout and walk profile was poor. He’s probably more of a good complementary player than someone who’d be one of the three to five best position players on a contender.

On top of all that, the front office faces the unique challenge of building a pitching staff that can succeed at altitude. They’re always likely to face heavier pitch counts and workloads over the course of a 162-game season at MLB’s most hitter-friendly park. Colorado hitters need to adjust to different pitch movements at home and on the road. They’re in a division with the two-time defending World Series winners. The Padres have won 90-plus games in two straight seasons. The Diamondbacks and Giants have been around average of late, but both teams have the kind of impact position player talent that the Rockies have not developed since the Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon heyday.

DePodesta will be the surprise choice to turn things around. The Rockies had seemingly settled on Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye and Guardians AGM Matt Forman as the finalists last week. Bob Nightengale of USA Today writes that Sawdaye rejected Colorado’s offer, while Forman took himself out of consideration. That led them to go well outside the box for DePodesta.

It’s Colorado’s first external GM hiring in more than a decade. They’d stayed internal with the promotions of Jeff Bridich and Bill Schmidt. DePodesta’s first task will be the final managerial decision of the offseason. Interim skipper Warren Schaeffer has been in limbo since the team moved on from Schmidt at the end of the regular season.

Thomas Harding of MLB.com first mentioned that DePodesta was a strong candidate for the position. ESPN’s Jeff Passan mentioned that they were nearing a deal, while The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, Brittany Ghiroli and Zac Jackson first reported the agreement was in place.

Image courtesy of Ken Blaze, USA Today Sports.

Rockies Have Spoken With Adam Ottavino About Top Front Office Job

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Rockies owner Dick Monfort has spoken with longtime big league reliever Adam Ottavino about the team’s top front office vacancy, reports Tim Healey of The Boston Globe. (That’ll presumably be a general manager but the title could change based on whomever they hire.) Meanwhile, Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic reports that Guardians’ assistant general manager Matt Forman and Diamondbacks’ AGM Amiel Sawdaye — previously reported to be finalists for the position — are now out of the running.

It’s unclear how seriously the Rockies are considering Ottavino as a candidate to run baseball operations. The 39-year-old not only has no front office experience of any kind, he’s still technically an active player. Ottavino pitched in the majors with the Yankees as recently as this past April. He made three appearances before electing free agency. He spent the rest of the season as a free agent but has not officially announced his retirement.

Ottavino has long been expected to find a front office or coaching role once he concluded his playing career. He was well-versed in using analytics as a pitching development tool. He’s also media savvy and has frequently appeared as a guest analyst on the MLB Network over the offseason. Still, it’d be shocking if a team hired him as their top decision-maker before he gets any kind of post-playing experience.

The Rockies have been one of the sport’s most insular organizations with front office and coaching hirings. They’ve already announced that they would not promote from within this time around. Ottavino would be an outside-the-box hire, but he also has close ties to the franchise and to Monfort. He has spent almost half of his MLB career in Denver. He posted a 3.41 earned run average over 361 appearances with the Rockies between 2012-18.

Ottavino is personally familiar with the challenges of pitching (and succeeding) at Coors Field. He discussed exactly that in an MLB Network appearance in May. It makes sense that the Rockies would want him in a front office role of some kind, yet a GM hire would obviously be a massive amount of responsibility.

There doesn’t appear to be a clear timetable for the Rockies to install anyone at the top of baseball operations. Forman and Sawdaye were the only two known remaining candidates coming into today. Ghiroli writes that they were indeed the only two finalists as of last week. It seems they’re now branching back out.

Latest On Rockies’ Front Office Search

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1:00pm: Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post reports this afternoon that there’s “no truth” to rumors that the Rockies’ search for a new front office leader have stalled or that they have begun looking at alternative candidates. That doesn’t necessarily mean a deal with Sawdaye or Forman is close or even expected, of course, but it suggests that the team’s search continues with the same group of finalists they had narrowed the field to in recent weeks. While Sawdaye and Forman are the only two names known to be in that group, it’s possible that additional finalists have been in the mix throughout the entire process who simply haven’t been named publicly.

11:50am: The Rockies have been on the hunt for a new head of baseball operations ever since GM Bill Schmidt departed the club at the beginning of October. With the offseason now officially upon us, the pressure to find the next person who will lead Colorado’s front office is growing significantly.

While Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye and Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman both emerged as finalists for the job in recent weeks, today a report from Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggests that, at least for the time being, neither Sawdaye or Forman appear poised to be named the Rockies’ head of baseball operations. Thomas Harding of MLB.com adds that conversations with both Sawdaye and Forman have been “productive,” but the Rockies are still in the midst of their search and “the feeling was” that other candidates were still in the mix despite Sawdaye and Forman being the only two publicly identified finalists.

It’s not clear if Sawdaye and/or Forman are still in the running for the job or if they’re no longer under consideration, but at the very least it seems as though the Rockies will spend at least the first few days of the offseason without a proper head of baseball operations. That’s not completely unheard of, as the Astros famously parted ways with James Click early in the 2022-23 offseason and didn’t hire a new head of baseball operations until late January, with club chairman Jim Crane running baseball operations in that interim period.

As previously mentioned, Sawdaye and Forman are the only two names who have been confirmed as finalists for the role. Click and Royals assistant GM Scott Sharp were once part of the search but are reportedly no longer in consideration. Former Twins GM Thad Levine was connected to the position immediately after Bill Schmidt’s departure, but has never been confirmed to have even spoken to the Rockies about the role to this point.

Whoever ultimately ends up taking the reins of baseball operations in Colorado, their first decision will be one that becomes less flexible the longer the search drags on. The Rockies finished the season with interim manager Warren Schaeffer at the helm of the dugout, but his future in the role as well as the futures of the rest of the coaching staff in the organization are set to be determined by the club’s eventual baseball operations hire. If the team’s search for a new baseball operations leader drags deep into the offseason, the continuity offered by keeping Schaeffer and much of the Rockies coaching staff in the fold could become more valuable as other candidates settle into roles elsewhere around the league.

Rockies Narrow Front Office Search To At Least Two Finalists

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Reports emerged a few days ago that the Rockies were entering the finalist stage of their search for a new front office leader, and the field has now been whittled down to perhaps just two names.  The Athletic’s Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal report that Guardians assistant GM Matt Forman and Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye are under consideration for the job, though it is possible another unknown finalist may also still be in the mix.  Former Astros GM James Click and Royals assistant GM Scott Sharp had been candidates for the Rockies job but are no longer in consideration.

Forman, Sharp, and Click were the only names linked to the Rockies’ search, though naturally the team has likely been speaking with other candidates like Sawdaye who weren’t publicly known until now.  Sawdaye has previously been a candidate for top front office posts with the Giants (before Farhan Zaidi was hired) and Angels (who hired Perry Minasian), plus he was at least contacted by the Nationals about their president of baseball operations opening this offseason before Paul Toboni was hired.  Sawdaye has never held the top post in a front office before, but he did take over day-to-day operations for the D’Backs in 2021 when GM Mike Hazen took a temporary leave of absence.

Sawdaye is a longtime executive who started his baseball career with a 15-year stint in the Red Sox front office, rising to the levels of VP of international and amateur scouting.  He worked closely with Hazen for a decade of that time, and when Hazen was hired as Arizona’s GM in October 2016, Sawdaye followed as Hazen’s assistant GM and has since been the de facto chief lieutenant within the Diamondbacks front office.

All this time in the NL West has given Sawdaye plenty of familiarity with the Rockies, and thus Sawdaye may well have some insight into how the Rox can get their organization on track.  Colorado’s search for a new front office head is particularly intriguing since owner Dick Monfort is finally looking at external hires, as a way of bringing some fresh perspective into an organization that has long been accused of being too insular and outmoded in its thinking.

Seven straight losing seasons will tend to convince a team that things need to be changed, especially after the particular embarrassment of the Rockies’ near-record 119-loss campaign in 2025.  Whether it’s Sawdaye, Forman, or another finalist who gets the job, a massive task lies in front of them in simply modernizing the Rockies’ baseball operations department, before getting around to upgrading the on-field roster.

The latest round of interviews for the finalists will take place later this week, Ghiroli and Rosenthal write, with the assumption being that the Rockies will have someone hired before the GM Meetings in early November.  Interim manager Warren Schaeffer technically remains a candidate for the full-time managerial position, but chances are the new GM/president of baseball operations would want to make their own choice as Colorado’s next skipper.

Rockies Have Interviewed James Click, Scott Sharp, Matt Forman In Front Office Search

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The Rockies are looking outside the organization for a new front office leader. Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic reports that they have interviewed James Click of the Blue Jays, Scott Sharp of the Royals and Matt Forman of the Guardians. It’s possible that the club has spoken with others but that’s at least three external candidates to have interviewed.

Colorado just wrapped up a third straight season of at least 101 losses. They haven’t had a winning record since 2018. Understandably, changes are necessary, even for a famously loyal and insular club like the Rockies. Manager Bud Black was fired in May. A few weeks ago, it was revealed that general manager Bill Schmidt and the club would also be parting ways. When the Rockies announced the Schmidt news, they noted that they would be looking for an external candidate to be the new head of their baseball operations. That’s a notable shift for the Rockies, who have received criticism for always promoting from within. It seems they are following through on the plan to look elsewhere, based on these potential candidates.

Of the three, Click is the one with experience running a front office. After many years working for the Rays, the Astros hired Click to be their general manager going into the 2020 season. The Astros were already a good club at that time but previous general manager Jeff Luhnow had been fired in the wake of the sign-stealing scandal.

While Click had a head-start by inheriting a very strong team, he at least kept the good times rolling. They made it to the ALCS in the shortened 2020 season. In 2021, they won the West and made it to the World Series, though they lost to Atlanta. They managed to win it all in 2022, toppling the Phillies in the World Series that year.

Despite that continued success, Click and owner Jim Crane reportedly didn’t get along behind the scenes, leading to a rare instance of a club parting ways with a front office leader on the heels of a World Series title. A few months after leaving Houston, Click joined the Blue Jays as vice president of baseball strategy. He was reportedly a candidate for the Red Sox job a couple of years ago before pulling himself out of the running due to family considerations. The Sox eventually hired Craig Breslow to run their front office.

Sharp has been with the Royals since 2006, initially hired in a player development role. He got the assistant general manager title in 2015 and later added senior vice-president to his nameplate. Years ago, he received reported interest from clubs like the Mets and Angels. Last winter, he was connected the Giants general manager job working under president of baseball operations Buster Posey. Sharp withdrew his name from the running due to family considerations and Zack Minasian ultimately got that job. Last month, Sharp was connected to the Nationals’ front office search, before they hired Paul Toboni as president of baseball operations.

Forman joined Cleveland back in 2013 in a scouting role, getting promoted to assistant general manager after the 2016 season. He later added the title of executive vice-president to his office door. Like Sharp, he was connected to the Washington job last month before Toboni was hired.

Time will tell if any of these three are frontrunners or if they are just some of many names under consideration. What is also unknown is how much interest these three, or front office candidates in general, will be interested in joining the Rockies. Building a winner in Colorado will be a unique challenge. The altitude conditions are famously awful for pitchers. Even the hitters face a unique challenge, as breaking balls move differently in the mountains than at sea level. That means the bats are constantly adjusting when going on the road and back, leading many Rockies to have very wide platoon splits. It’s also been supposed that the thin Denver air present difficulties for injury management.

Those particular conditions may scare off some executives. On the other hand, the unique conditions might also attract a certain individual who is drawn to solving the puzzle and getting the recognition that would go along with that feat. There’s also the standard observation that there are only 30 jobs running a front office, so an individual who wants such a job may not want to close any doors. Teams generally don’t stand in the way of their employees interviewing for promotions elsewhere, so it’s unlikely the Jays, Royals or Guardians would stand in the way of these guys pursuing the job.

Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images

Nationals Have Interviewed Guardians’ AGM Matt Forman

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Guardians executive vice president and assistant general manager Matt Forman has interviewed for the Nationals’ GM vacancy, reports Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. It’s not clear when the interview occurred or whether Forman has advanced beyond the initial stage.

Cubs GM Carter Hawkins reportedly interviewed for the position two weeks back. The Nats also reached out to Dodgers executive vice president Josh Byrnes and Diamondbacks AGM Amiel Sawdaye. Over the weekend, Tim Healey of The Boston Globe reported that Red Sox’s assistant GM Paul Toboni was also on Washington’s radar. Whether any of those executives formally interviewed is not known. Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post suggested last week that the Nats hoped to have a new front office leader in place by the end of the season.

Forman, a Northwestern product, entered professional baseball with Cleveland in 2013. Forman started as an amateur scouting intern and had worked his way to assistant general manager within four years. A former staffer at Baseball America, Forman received another promotion in January 2022 when the Guardians added the executive VP role to his title. That essentially places him third on Cleveland’s front office hierarchy behind baseball operations president Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff. Sky Andrecheck, Eric Binder and James Harris also hold an AGM title with the Guards.

The Nationals fired former GM Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez in July. Mike DeBartolo has led the front office on an interim basis for the past two months and could also get consideration for the full-time position.

Guardians Announce Several Organizational Promotions

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The Guardians announced 20 new promotions and hirings within the organization, including some prominent new titles for members of the baseball operations department.  Assistant general manager Matt Forman was given the additional title of executive VP, essentially placing him under only president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff on the team’s decision-making pyramid.  Eric Binder and James Harris were promoted to assistant GM roles, as the duo joins Sky Andrecheck as Cleveland’s AGMs.

Today’s announcement helps fill in some gaps left behind by some notable departures from the Guardians’ front office earlier this winter.  Former assistant GM Carter Hawkins left the Guardians to become the Cubs’ new general manager back in October, while former special assistant Don Poplin left for a similar position within the Royals front office and former director of amateur scouting John Mirabelli departed for a special assistant role with Nationals GM Mike Rizzo.

With these longtime employees moving onto other teams, the Guardians responded by promoting some other familiar names.  Forman is entering his 10th season with the organization after starting as a baseball ops intern, and he has worked as an assistant GM for the last five years.

Binder (nine seasons in Cleveland) previously worked as the VP of baseball ops.  As per the team’s press release, “Binder will expand his responsibilities across baseball operations, while continuing to lead the organization’s pitching efforts and supporting the Major League field staff with strategic planning and activities.”

Harris (five seasons in Cleveland) worked as the Guardians’ VP and director of player development, and will now “assist in all facets of baseball operations” and “provide macro-level leadership of the player development system along with the Major League and minor league performance areas.”  In something of a unique point for a baseball executive, Harris’ previous job before joining the Guardians was working as a football chief of staff under Chip Kelly when Kelly coached the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles and at the University of Oregon.

Given how often Cleveland’s front office is targeted by other teams, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of these names surface in future searches for general managers or other high-ranking roles around the league.  Harris has already been a finalist for one high-profile job, as he and Hawkins were both among the finalists for the Cubs’ GM job.

Indians Name Co-Assistant General Managers

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Indians president Chris Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff have decided it’s going to take two executives to replace former assistant GM Derek Falvey, who became the Twins’ chief baseball officer after the World Series. The American League champions promoted Carter Hawkins and Matt Forman to co-assistant GMs on Friday, Chernoff announced (via Jordan Bastian of MLB.com).

“I don’t expect we’ll fill [Falvey’s role] exactly the same way, but Carter Hawkins and Matt Forman will be promoted to assistant general managers. Carter, who had been director of player development, will continue to oversee our player development,” said Chernoff.

Hawkins, whom the Indians hired in 2008, became their player development director in 2014. He oversaw the Tribe’s farm system in that role, which will continue to be the case in his new position, per Bastian.

This is the second promotion in less than a year for Forman, who took over as the Indians’ director of baseball operations last Nov. 20 when Falvey moved up to assistant GM. Prior to joining the Indians in 2013, Forman worked for Baseball America.

“Matt, who had sort of come up through more of a scouting background, will oversee a lot of our scouting and acquisition processes — international, professional — and continue to be involved in the amateur stuff,” Chernoff stated. “And then, both guys will be part of our leadership team with all personnel, staff development and other initiatives.”

It doesn’t appear the AL Central rival Twins will force Cleveland to undergo more front office changes during the offseason, as Antonetti said Friday that he doesn’t expect Falvey to hire away any Indians execs. Falvey already tabbed a GM earlier in the week in former Rangers assistant Thad Levine.

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