Paul DePodesta has returned to baseball after nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns, accepting the challenge of rebuilding the Colorado Rockies as president of baseball operations. The 52-year-old analytics pioneer spoke Tuesday at the general managers meetings, four days after his hiring was announced.

DePodesta rebuffed baseball inquiries during his first five years with the Browns before the Rockies opportunity emerged. The position represents his return to a sport where he previously held front office roles with the Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and New York Mets.

"It had to be the right situation," DePodesta said Tuesday. "And that right situation includes a challenge, ownership, geography, other things like people I might be able to work with. So this came about, and we started going through that calculus. This came about, and it's very interesting."

DePodesta inherits a franchise coming off a 119-loss season that has not posted a winning record since 2018. The Rockies have never won a World Series and own just one National League pennant from 2007, which ended in a four-game Series loss to Boston.

Home attendance declined to 2.4 million last season from 3 million in 2018. DePodesta must fill the team's managerial vacancy as his first major decision.

"I think probably the most important thing for me is being a great relationship manager with the players," DePodesta said. "We're trying to build a culture in the clubhouse. Certainly, there are game strategy and other things that are important, but that manager relationship piece and being sort of a great teammate, too, with the rest of the organization, those things are equally valuable."

DePodesta rose to prominence as part of a new generation of analytics-focused front office executives. He served as inspiration for Jonah Hill's character in "Moneyball" about the 2002 Athletics.

The Dodgers hired DePodesta as general manager at age 31 in 2004, though he lasted just 20 months. He joined the Browns as chief strategy officer in January 2016 after subsequent stints with the Padres and Mets.

Cleveland posted a 56-99-1 record during DePodesta's tenure. The Browns reached the playoffs with an 11-5 mark in 2020 but failed to sustain success with just one winning season since.

DePodesta signed a five-year contract extension in 2020 but stayed longer than anticipated trying to stabilize the organization.

"Really, the last four years, I started thinking about what might be next," DePodesta said.