Paul DePodesta

Paul DePodesta (born December 16, 1972) is an American football executive and former baseball executive who is the chief strategy officer of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL).

He previously served as a front-office assistant for the Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, and New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB).

DePodesta was also general manager of MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers.

He is also known for his appearance in the book and movie Moneyball about his early career as an assistant with the Athletics.

DePodesta is a native of Alexandria, Virginia, where he grew up with Thad Levine.

He attended Episcopal High School ('91) and then Harvard University, where he played baseball and football and graduated in 1995 with a degree in economics.

He began his career as a sports executive with an internship for the Baltimore Stallions of the Canadian Football League in 1995.

In 1996, DePodesta got his first baseball job with the Cleveland Indians, where he spent three seasons.

He spent the 1996 season as a player development intern, and was promoted to advance scout for the 1997-1998 seasons.

Later in the 1998 season, he was appointed special assistant to general manager John Hart.

In 1999, he joined the Oakland Athletics organization as the assistant general manager, serving as second-in-command to general manager Billy Beane.

DePodesta was a key figure in Michael Lewis's book Moneyball.

The book thrust the analytical principles of sabermetrics into the mainstream.

At the age of 31, DePodesta was named general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers on February 16, 2004, making him the fifth-youngest general manager in baseball history.

DePodesta's reliance on sabermetric principles has been somewhat controversial.

He is often considered part of a new breed of front-office executives whose personnel decisions depend heavily on analysis of performance data, often at the perceived expense of more traditional methods of scouting and observation.

One of DePodesta's most notable moves was made at the 2004 trading deadline.

He traded catcher Paul Lo Duca, relief pitcher Guillermo Mota and outfielder Juan Encarnación to the Florida Marlins in exchange for pitcher Brad Penny, first baseman Hee Seop Choi and pitcher Bill Murphy, in what was reportedly an attempt to pick up pieces to acquire pitcher Randy Johnson from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

DePodesta was heavily criticized in the local and national baseball media for this trade, because Lo Duca was thought to be the "heart and soul" of the team.

Choi, however, was a disappointment, batting just .161 in 2004 and .253 in 2005, and striking out 80 times in 320 at bats.

Bill Murphy was traded that year to acquire Steve Finley, who hit 13 homers in 58 games, including a memorable grand slam that clinched the division title.

During the 2004 off-season, Adrián Beltré, who had hit 48 home runs in 2004, signed with Seattle as a free agent, spurning DePodesta's offer of 3 years for $30 million for Seattle's offer of 5 years for $64 million.

DePodesta signed J. D. Drew, Jeff Kent, and Derek Lowe.

Drew enjoyed two productive seasons as a Dodger and then used an opt-out clause in his contract to sign a new 5-year deal with the Boston Red Sox.

Coming off the successes of 2004, the 2005 season saw the Dodgers lose a number of players to significant stints on the disabled list.

Many of the players lost to injury were expected to produce heavily for the team, including J. D. Drew, Milton Bradley, Éric Gagné, Jayson Werth, César Izturis and Odalis Pérez.

Lo Duca played through 2005 with the Marlins and then went to the New York Mets, the Washington Nationals and back to the Marlins, making his final Major League appearance in September 2008.

The 2005 season resulted in the team's worst record since 1992 and second worst since moving to Los Angeles in 1958.

On October 29, 2005, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt fired DePodesta, citing his desire to see the club win and that DePodesta had not met those expectations.

Reports surfaced that the real reason McCourt had fired DePodesta was his inability to find satisfactory managerial candidates to replace Jim Tracy.

He was later replaced by Ned Colletti, who hired Grady Little as manager.

Some have speculated that McCourt fired DePodesta in response to media criticism from Los Angeles Times sports columnists T. J. Simers and Bill Plaschke, who were vehemently "anti-Moneyball" and referred to DePodesta pejoratively as "Google Boy."

On June 30, 2006, DePodesta was hired as the special assistant for baseball operations for the San Diego Padres and was promoted to executive vice president on November 10, 2008.

The Dodgers made the playoffs anyway, with Penny developing into one of the better pitchers in the National League during his stint with the Dodgers, which lasted until the end of the 2008 season.

Both Kent and Lowe put in four productive seasons for the Dodgers and cut ties with the franchise at the end of the 2008 season with Kent retiring and Lowe signing a contract with the Atlanta Braves.

On November 8, 2010, DePodesta was hired as the vice president of player development and scouting for the New York Mets by general manager Sandy Alderson, with whom DePodesta worked when Alderson was CEO of the Padres.

On January 5, 2016, DePodesta was hired by the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) as their chief strategy officer.

On July 31, 2021, it was reported that the Browns and DePodesta had agreed to a 5-year contract extension.

On March 18, 2022, DePodesta helped to facilitate a controversial trade for Deshaun Watson.

Watson and the Texans' 2024 sixth-round draft pick were traded to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for the Browns' first-round draft picks in 2022, 2023, and 2024, as well as the Browns' third-round pick in 2023 and fourth-round picks in 2022 and 2024.