Former NFL Exec Turned Rockies President Ready To Fix Team's Mile-High Problem

Paul DePodesta is aiming to break decade-long trends, and create an atmosphere of advantage and excitement in MLB's most daunting city.

Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK

After spending 10-seasons as the Cleveland Browns Chief Strategy Officer, Paul DePodesta is returning to Major League Baseball with clear intentions: make playing at mile-high altitude a strength, not a weakness.

The Colorado Rockies shockingly hired DePodesta in November 2025 to become the team's President of Baseball Operations after a decade-long hiatus from MLB.

Now, he's been self-assigned one of the biggest challenges in professional baseball: consistently thriving in Denver. In a recent article, ESPN's Alden Gonzalez skillfully dissected DePodesta's goal within the Rockies organization.

"DePodesta wants the Rockies to view playing baseball at 5,280 feet above sea level as an advantage, not a hindrance," Gonzalez writes.

Paul DePodesta Prepares To Make a Name for Himself and Fix MLB’s Biggest Ballpark Mystery

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How he plans on doing this is still unknown, but he's attacking it from different angles. From recruiting pitchers with specific arsenals that thrive in thin air, to acquiring players with speed and agility to track down balls quicker in the outfield. DePodesta is thinking of everything, and just getting started.

This isn't the first trailblazing path DePodesta has embarked on. He famously pioneered the league-wide acceptance of on-base percentage as a highly-underrated stat in which MLB executives must prioritize during free agency and acquisitional periods.

The Moneyball man behind the scenes worked to build an elite team using statistics that most heavily correlate to runs scored. Now, he's trying to fix the Rockies' biggest challenge: elevation

"I'm a sucker for a challenge," DePodesta said.

A challenge this will be indeed. Colorado lost a franchise-worst 119 games last season, and has lost 101+ in three consecutive seasons. Before 2023, Colorado had a plethora of 90+ loss teams, but none ever passed the century mark.

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Not only was a lot of losing involved in the 2026 campaign, but a historically bad run differential as well. The Rockies finished dead last in MLB team ERA by a long shot and allowed the second-most runs in franchise history. Colorado's pitching staff struggled at a historic rate, but it also produced an offensive disaster.

The Rockies' 597 runs scored were the fewest through a 162-game season in franchise history, by 85. Denver's thin air has long been an infamous part of the Colorado experience, but the new President of Baseball Operations has a new mantra that the team is optimistically embracing.

"We need to embrace this," DePodesta said. "This is who we are."

DePodesta is fully committed to excelling in elevation, and he's begun to recruit the team to his side.

Paul DePodesta Has Begun To Gain Trust and Excitement From the Rockies’ Core

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"The Rockies have been playing at elevation since the team began, but I feel like, as far as since I've been here, we haven't really done much to figure out how we can gain an advantage there," Catcher Hunter Goodman said. "I think going forward, it'll be awesome to see how we attack that."

With the famous statistician now leading the Rockies brass, the team will embark on a new adventure. Over the offseason, he hired an abundance of high-level organization leaders, including a new GM, Assistant GMs, and a plethora of new pitching coaches.

Whether he succeeds in his mission won't be known for years, but he won't go down without trying. DePodesta has set his staff up well and has the track record to make a difference in Colorado.

Before his decade-long tenure in the NFL, DePodesta spent 20-years in various high-level roles within MLB. Most recently, he was the vice president of player development and amateur scouting for the New York Mets from 2011 -15.