Rockies are about to learn harsh lesson after poaching Dodgers executive for GM role

The Rockies are a deeply unserious franchise, but they're making a very uncharacteristic effort to legitimize themselves again this offseason. They started by hiring Paul DePodesta — best known for being the guy Jonah Hill's character in Moneyball was based on — as their president of baseball operations. DePodesta has not worked in baseball since 2015 and spent 10 seasons with NFL's Cleveland Browns.

He spent some time with the Dodgers (among others) before switching over to football. He was hired as the Dodgers' GM in 2004 (the youngest ever at the time), but was fired just a year later after the Dodgers posted a 71-91 record in 2005.

On Wednesday, the Rockies announced DePodesta had poached Dodgers' senior vice president of baseball operations Josh Byrnes to fill the role of Colorado's general manager. The two overlapped as front office members with the Cleveland Indians in the 1990s, and Byrnes spent some time with the Rockies from 2000-2002.

Byrnes has had an incredibly successful run with the Dodgers and is, by all accounts, a good hire for the Rockies. But the last time a division rival poached a top executive from LA, it didn't work out so well for them.

Rockies hire Dodgers' longtime vice president of baseball operations Josh Byrnes

Former Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi had a nice four seasons in LA from 2015-2018, before he left to helm the Giants and absolutely flamed out. Under Zaidi's leadership, San Francisco finished third twice, somehow toppled the Dodgers for the NL West crown in 2021 but were eliminated in the NLDS, turned in one season with a .500 record, and then two more losing campaigns.

At the end of 2024, the Giants fired Zaidi and hired Buster Posey in the same breath. Zaidi has returned to the Dodgers and is now a special assistant to owner Mark Walter.

He made a lot of notable gaffes in San Francisco, including Ross Stripling, Tom Murphy, and Tommy La Stella. He also whiffed hard on Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper, and Carlos Rodón. He once insisted that the Giants couldn't increase payroll because they had team employees to think about.

It remains to be seen how Byrnes will actually do in DePodesta's shadow — PoBO Andrew Friedman is very much the face of the Dodgers' front office, while GM Brandon Gomes takes a back seat — and to see what he'll do in an expanded role. Good luck, but we've already seen how this movie plays out.