Rockies hire Dodgers exec Josh Byrnes as general manager

The Colorado Rockies keep adding former Dodgers front office members for their own front office. The latest comes from the current group in Los Angeles, with Josh Byrnes heading to Colorado as general manager, per multiple reports.

Ken Rosenthal, Dennis Lin, and Maria Torres as The Athletic were first to report Byrnes to the Rockies, which was also reported by Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

Byrnes was a senior vice president in baseball operations for the Dodgers for the last 11 years, supervising the organizational scouting and player development. He started with the Dodgers in 2015, the same year Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi came to Los Angeles. This was near the beginning of front offices expanding across the sport, a trend new enough such that during a media availability before the 2015 season with Friedman and Zaidi one of the questions was if another team’s GM called, which one would answer the call.

The Rockies have been slow to change, which has fueled their descent into irrelevance in recent years, including 323 losses over the last three seasons. Overhaul has come in the form of Bud Black getting fired in his ninth season as manager, with Warren Schaeffer getting hired officially as his replacement in November after finishing out 2025 as interim manager.

Paul DePodesta was hired in November as the Rockies president of baseball operations, after a decade with the Cleveland Browns, whose lack of success in the NFL mirrors the Rockies. DePodesta gained fame in baseball under Billy Beane with the Moneyball A’s, and was Dodgers GM in 2004-05, the latter a true tale of two seasons in Los Angeles.

Byrnes is only the fifth general manager in the history of the Rockies, which extends back to 1993, joining Bob Gebhard, Dan O’Dowd, Jeff Bridich, and Bill Schmidt.

Eleven years is a long time to be with one team, and Byrnes’ stint with the Dodgers is the longest of his career, which began in 1994 as an advance scout in Cleveland. He was also assistant GM with the Rockies from 1999-2002, then served the same role with the Boston Red Sox for 2003-05. Brynes was GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2006-10, and GM of the San Diego Padres from 2012-14 before joining the Dodgers.

Byrnes is one Giants stint away from reaching a Matt Herges or Steve Finley but for the front office by being with all five teams in the National League West.