CLEVELAND — Paul DePodesta, the Cleveland Browns ' chief strategy officer, is reportedly heading back to Major League Baseball to become the head of baseball operations for the Colorado Rockies.

The story was first reported by Ken Rosenthal, Zac Jackson and Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic and has been confirmed by Mary Kay Cabot of 3News media partner Cleveland.com.

DePodesta has been with the Browns since January of 2016, when the franchise made a dramatic shift from a traditional football-based front office to one driven largely by analytics. During that time, Cleveland has seen three full-time head coaches and general managers, but DePodesta has remained the one constant.

In his near decade-long time with the Browns, it has never quite been clear what his exact role with the

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