Rockies poach Dodgers executive, bring him back as GM

Paul DePodesta has his right-hand man. Former Diamondbacks and Padres general manager Josh Byrnes will get a third crack at the gig in the NL West, this time with the Colorado Rockies.

Byrnes, 55, is a four-time World Series champion who wasn’t just the GM but ran baseball operations for both the Padres and D-backs. Most of his hardware has come in the last decade with the Dodgers, serving as one of Andrew Friedman’s top men since 2014. He previously was the assistant GM of the Rockies, hired by Dan O’Dowd in 1999, then left in 2003 for the same job in Boston. There he won his first title and the Red Sox first since 1918.

In a 2005 interview with The Boston Globe, stud baseball executive Theo Epstein said of Byrnes, “He’s a key voice in player personnel. He’s got as much a feel for evaluating and statistical analysis as anyone in baseball.”

His work in Boston landed him the job in Arizona, where he led the club to the 2007 NL West crown, one of the few lower-third payroll teams to win a division in recent memory.

Byrnes was ahead of his time by making A. J. Hinch his manager but that move was ultimately his downfall. Still, his drafting was notable, taking Max Scherzer, Paul Goldschmidt, AJ Pollock and Adam Eaton. Though he later traded Scherzer away before he became a star.

In San Diego, the team struggled through ownership changes and it impacted the club. Still, he landed Trea Turner, Max Fried, Hunter Renfroe and Zach Eflin through the draft.

In Los Angeles, he’s helped build one of the best farm systems in baseball.

Josh Byrnes, former Diamondbacks and Padres general manager, will be the Rockies GM under president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta, sources tell me and @dennistlin. Byrnes has been the Dodgers’ senior vice president of baseball operations since 2014.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 3, 2025

Byrnes and DePodesta now have the task of turning around Dick Monfort’s ballclub, who had one of the worst seasons in MLB history this past summer.

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