That noise you just heard was a collective sigh of relief from fans of the Colorado Rockies.
Just 48 hours ago it appeared that the Rockies would enter the start of next Mondayâs General Managersâ meetings in Las Vegas without representation after letting go of former General Manager Bill Schmidt at the beginning of October, and then failing to hire a replacement during the week following the end of the World Series. However late Thursday it was learned that the team was hiring former Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Paul DePodesta as their new head of Baseball Operations.
Reactions to the hire have been mixed so far. But at least they hired someone.
DePodesta has most recently been working in the front office of the NFLâs Cleveland Browns. He famously got his start as an executive working alongside Billy Beane with the Oakland Aâs. The role of Peter Brand, played by actor Jonah Hill in the movie, âMoneyballâ Â was based on DePodesta. He worked with Beane in Oakland from 1999-2004, helping usher in the teamâs new approach to roster building and in-game lineup adjustments based on advanced statistical analysis.
A two-year stint as the GM of the Dodgers that followed was not successful. DePodesta spent several seasons working in other front offices in San Diego and New York before joining the Browns in 2015. Â
Over the past two plus decades, the Rockies have lagged badly behind other Major League Baseball clubs in embracing and implementing the sabermetrics model made famous in the book and movie of the same name. If he is given the green light to go in that direction, then the hiring of DePodesta will represent a significant shift in organizational philosophy.
The Rockies will still be hiring a General Manager at some point to work under the new President of Baseball Operations.
The common ground with the current Rockies ownership and the Moneyball approach will be to try to build a contending roster on a lower tier budget.
There will also be one potential point of conflict that will bear watching in Denver. Over the past two decades, Rockies ownership has been averse to making any number of significant trades in the same manner as most of the other clubs. There has been fan backlash at the departure of star players like DJ LeMahieu and Nolan Arenado that team management continues to fear will have repercussions with the ticket and merchandise buying public. A self-described âdraft and developâ organization, the Rockies have also been reluctant to part with top prospects they have previously drafted in any transactions seen as being an attempt to upgrade the current roster. This past summer, in the middle of the worst season in franchise history, the Rockies broke form and traded standout third baseman Ryan McMahon to the New York Yankees after balking at doing so the year before when McMahon earned his only All-Star selection.
Followers of the Moneyball approach know that player movement and roster shuffling are a big part of that equation before and during the season. There are not emotional ties to the name on the back of the jersey.
How those two thought processes are merged will greatly impact the clubâs immediate fortunes.
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