LAS VEGAS (AP) — After brushing off baseball inquiries during the first five seasons following his surprising decision to leave his longtime sport for the Cleveland Browns, Paul DePodesta couldn’t resist the challenge of turning the Colorado Rockies into a consistent winner.

“It had to be the right situation,” he said Tuesday, four days after he was hired as president of baseball operations . “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.”

After time in front offices of the Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and New York Mets, DePodesta became the Browns’ chief strategy officer in

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