Noah Spirek | December 9, 2025 | @NoahSpirek

Well, well, well, Rockies fans. Look at us.

As the club continues building its front office under new President of Baseball Operations Paul DePodesta, it’s hard to listen to new Colorado Rockies General Manager Josh Byrnes and not feel optimistic about where the franchise could be headed.

In DePodesta’s first front office move, he elected to hire Byrnes, who arrives with a catalog of past success. Byrnes spent the last 11 seasons as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ senior vice president of baseball operations, where he supervised the Dodgers’ scouting and player development. During that span, the Dodgers won the National League West every season except 2021, when they *still* won 106 games.

The general manager role is nothing new to Byrnes, who was in that position with the San Diego Padres from 2011-14 and the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2005-10. Colorado is his fourth stop in the division.

“Yeah, I’ve toured the NL West a little bit,” Byrnes said with a smile. “It’s a really good division, and it has been for quite some time.”

While leaving the juggernaut Dodgers was hard, Byrnes said Colorado was an appealing spot due to his longstanding relationship with DePodesta.

“It was tough to leave, but I’ve known Paul for 30 years, and he and I have always embraced challenges,” Byrnes said. “I think he’s brilliant.”

He also pointed to the Monfort family, stating “The other piece is Dick and Walker Monfort. I just think they’re wonderful guys. I’ve known Dick for a long time, and there’s genuine passion for this franchise and the people, and the desire to do big things. So, it’s a great challenge with the right people.”

As the Rockies enter a new era, DePodesta echoed the sentiment of a shared vision.

“We’ve both been advance scouts. We were both assistants in baseball operations. We’ve both run player development scouting areas. We’ve both been assistant GMs. We’ve both been general managers. So, we’ve done a lot of the same jobs at different times in our careers and in different circumstances. I think we fill in each other’s gaps to a large degree.

“I told him this from the beginning: I see us as partners in this,” DePodesta added. “We’re going to be involved in every part of the baseball operation. I truly think Josh is going to significantly impact everything we do in baseball operations.”

It goes without saying that the transition from the Dodgers to the Rockies will be a major adjustment, perhaps most notably in spending power.

In 2025, the Dodgers’ payroll reached $321 million payroll (2^nd highest), compared to the Rockies’ $121 million (21^st), per USA Today. Yet, Byrnes strongly believes organizational philosophy can outweigh spending power.

“I think from day one with the Dodgers, we wanted to be a big-market team and use our spending power, but also [wanted] to be a small-market team and be very good in baseball operations,” Byrnes said. “Scouting, development, performance, science, analytics, you name it. That applies to all 30 teams, regardless of your payroll capacity. I believe I can bring that here.”

It is a task that will be no small feat. The Rockies have never won a division title in their 33 seasons. Despite that, prior to 2023, they had never eclipsed the 100-loss mark. Now, the franchise has bottomed out. Colorado is coming off its third-straight 100+ loss season, with the latest marking the worst season in franchise history with a 43-119 record.

“Obviously, 119 losses, there’s no sugarcoating that,” Byrnes said. “There’s a lot of work to do [to create] winning standards and get the right talent [from] top to bottom in the organization. It’s taking an honest look at our roster and our minor league talent base, constantly looking to improve it, and maxing out the players.”

Fortunately, early indications point toward a renewed emphasis on research and analytics, an area the Rockies have consistently lagged behind in.

“I think undoubtedly we’ll have the resources and the appetite,” Byrnes said of the modern evaluation tools. “They need to be used. I think it’s across the game. There’s some degree of catch-up and learning that language, and then it’s who uses that kind of information the best and that’s really what starts separating teams.”

DePodesta reinforced that commitment, suggesting the club is prepped to support a focus on analytics.

“There’s been real energy behind investing in the baseball operation,” he said. “I think there’s a real appetite for that. We all realize that it’s a necessity to compete in today’s game.

“Josh and I have been in situations with immense resources. We’ve also been in situations that have had lesser resources… We feel very comfortable with what’s available here. There’s a desire to invest pretty heavily on the baseball side.”

As the Winter Meetings are underway in Orlando, Byrnes and DePodesta begin their quest to build a winning product at Coors Field.

“Paul and I have talked about raising the floor, having a deeper team with fewer gaps,” Byrnes said. “There’s a lot of ways to start attacking it, but there’s definitely some talent in place and some players over time that I know piqued my interest with the Dodgers.”

Both executives demonstrated great belief in the roster’s potential.

“There’s absolutely talent in the organization,” DePodesta said. “Not only internationally, but also domestically. There are some players that the industry has recognized as us having a lot of talent. Now, it’s up to us to get them to realize that.”

Byrnes furthered the point, adding that individualized development is essential to building a winning philosophy.

“Each player is different,” he said. “The program [will] be very individualized… the core principle is being great at scouting and development.”

Of course, the ultimate goal is to bring a championship-caliber team to Denver. It’s a city already enjoying a sports boom, as the Broncos, Nuggets, and Avalanche are all positioned near the top of their respective leagues.

“That’s the challenge,” Byrnes said. “I wouldn’t come in here without some optimism and confidence that we can get there. We want to be part of that.”

Story by Noah Spirek.