Paul DePodesta is returning to Major League Baseball after being the lightning rod in a decade of Browns losing

Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.

Paul DePodesta, the Ivy League analytics whiz whose hiring by Browns owner Jimmy Haslam as chief strategy officer in 2016 was viewed as both progressive and controversial, is leaving to return to his roots in Major League Baseball.

DePodesta will head baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies, according to multiple reports. The Browns declined comment until the Rockies announce DePodesta’s hiring, which is expected to come on Friday.

DePodesta, who was depicted by Jonah Hill in the movie “Moneyball” as the youthful advisor to Oakland Athletics GM Billy Beane -- and declined permission to use his real name in the movie -- will take over a Rockies team that plummeted to a league-worst record of 43-119 in their seventh straight losing season.

Browns fans would say with a smirk that DePodesta should fit right in with an organization mired in losing.

In the 9+ years that DePodesta manned the created and influential position of chief strategy officer, the Browns built an overall record of 56-99-1 (.362) and had but two winning seasons. Only the Jets (.301), Giants (.341) and Jaguars. (.353) had a worse record over that time.

Rightly or wrongly, DePodesta, 52, became a lightning rod for the catastrophic decisions that paved the Haslam organization’s perennial losing ways.

Although DePodesta opposed the hiring of Hue Jackson as coach in 2016, he was responsible for the two-tiered, trade-down from the No. 2 draft position with Philadelphia and Tennessee that paved the way for 1-15 and 0-16 seasons.

When Haslam hired old-school football GM John Dorsey in December of 2017, and team fortunes improved, DePodesta’s influence on football matters disappeared and he ceased giving interviews. He concentrated on other areas of the organization, such as modernizing practices in sports science and nutrition, working remotely from his home in La Jolla, CA.

Eventually, though, Dorsey clashed with DePodesta’s heavily populated analytics department and was fired after the 2019 season.

Having burned through four head coaches and GMs in his first seven years of ownership, Haslam then appointed DePodesta to head the search committee for both positions. Haslam lamented at the time that he should’ve listened more intently to previous DePodesta recommendations, such as Sean McDermott over Jackson in 2016.

DePodesta, who introduced Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski as head coach candidate when Dorsey hired Freddie Kitchens, doubled up on Stefanski as his choice in 2020, and then married him to Andrew Berry as general manager. Berry originally joined the Browns’ personnel department the same year DePodesta was hired and left in Dorsey’s second season. The Stefanski-Berry partnership brought winning seasons and playoff appearances in 2020 and 2023.

It was at Stefanski’s introductory press conference in January of 2020 that DePodesta finally lifted the curtain on his mysterious role under the nebulous title of chief strategy officer.

“My kids ask me the same question: what is it you exactly do?” DePodesta said. “I think my role first and foremost is to not only help us create but also implement [a] shared vision. And then ultimately make sure that we stick to it -- really relentlessly. That’s really my role. So I look at all the processes within a football operation – hiring someone, how we do scouting, how we look at our numbers – I dig into all those processes and make sure they align with our vision and that we all as a group continue to stay aligned and on the same page.”

As Berry and Stefanski accrued currency with Haslam, DePodesta again retreated as a public figure and worked from his West Coast home. He appeared at training camps and at home and road games, but didn’t give interviews.

As chief strategy officer, however, DePodesta played a role in the disastrous trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson in 2022, though he did not accompany Haslam, Berry and Stefanski in the visit to Houston to recruit Watson, who had power to choose his team via a no-trade clause in his Houston Texans contract.

In March, Haslam took accountability for the trade that he termed “a big swing and a miss.” The Browns were without first-round draft picks for three years as a result of the trade and are still paying the salary cap consequences of an unprecedented, fully guaranteed contract for $230 million.

The final installment of Watson’s five-year contract guarantees him another $46 million in 2026 – whether or not he remains with the club – and the Browns have to account for over $130 million in charges to their salary cap in future years.

A source said the decision to leave the Browns was DePodesta’s alone.

“I think Paul's just ready for his next challenge,” the source said.

DePodesta’s professional sports career started as an intern with the Cleveland Indians in 1996 and advanced to special assistant to the GM. He was with the Indians while Mark Shapiro was working his way up to the position of president of the club. Ironically, Haslam originally pursued Shapiro to jump to the Browns in a high-level position before turning to DePodesta.

DePodesta moved from the Indians to assistant GM with the Athletics, GM of the Los Angeles Dodgers, special assistant for baseball operations and then executive vice president with the San Diego Padres, and vice president of player development and scouting with the New York Mets.

With that background, DePodesta’s defection to the NFL world with the Browns was greeted with cheers by analytics mavens and jeers by football fans.

It remains to be seen if DePodesta’s exit results in a restructuring of the Browns’ organization by Haslam as the 2-6 team sputters through another losing season.