Josh Byrnes is an original member of Andrew Friedman’s baseball operations department. If Farhan Zaidi was hired to be Friedman’s right-hand man in November 2014, Byrnes joined the Dodgers’ front office that same month on Friedman’s left.

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A role that began with a focus on scouting and player development allowed Byrnes’ work to touch the Dodgers’ major league roster for the next decade — mostly out of the spotlight, a sharp contrast to his work as general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres earlier in his career.

Byrnes would interview for higher-up jobs with the Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies but ultimately remain in Los Angeles — until now.

As first reported by Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin of The Athletic, Byrnes is headed to Denver to become the Colorado Rockies’ new general manager.

Byrnes will work under president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta in his new role. DePodesta — the former Dodgers’ general manager — had been out of baseball since accepting a job with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns in 2016.

Byrnes will give DePodesta a necessary sounding board as someone with strong recent experience in MLB, having helped shape the rosters that won the World Series in 2020, 2024, and 2025.

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Byrnes previously worked for the Rockies as an assistant GM from 1999-2003, when he left for the Boston Red Sox.

After helping the Red Sox end their World Series drought, he was appointed general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2005, a role he held for five years.

Byrnes was the general manager of the San Diego Padres from 2011 until he was fired midway through the 2014 season and replaced with AJ Preller.

Now he’ll return to Colorado, where the Rockies have missed the playoffs every year since 2018, and lost at least 100 games each of the last three years.

Byrnes and DePodesta have their work cut out for them. Besides the challenge of fielding a winning team in a high-altitude, pitcher-punishing ballpark, the Rockies are saddled with three more years and $81 million on Kris Bryant’s contract. The 33-year-old former MVP has played only 170 games and accumulated -1.5 bWAR since joining the Rockies in 2022.

Rebuilding a young core that can form the next good Rockies team in a top-heavy National League West is one of the most challenging tasks in baseball. Two former Dodgers executives are willing to take it on.