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The NFL hasn’t worked out for DePodesta, and you can understand his taking an opportunity to return to where he had his greatest success. DePodesta is smart and data-driven, traits the Rockies desperately need. My biggest concern is just the length of time he’s been gone; baseball, and particularly player analysis and development, has aged a century in the last decade. The metrics, the tools, the thinking are nothing like the game DePodesta left in 2016. Even assuming he’s kept up a little as a long-time baseball guy with an interest in the sport, he’s going to have to learn a lot in a short period of time. He’s also going to have to drag the Rockies into the 2020s by building out a modern player development system almost from scratch.
