The Colorado Rockies hired Paul DePodesta as their new head of baseball operations on Friday.

DePodesta, 52, is a longtime baseball executive and a former chief strategy officer for the NFL's Cleveland Browns.

He won't have long to wait to get started, given the MLB general managers meetings begin Monday in Las Vegas.

DePodesta's first task, however, will be to find a manager.

The Rockies remain the lone MLB team without a skipper. They fired Bud Black in May and did not replace interim manager Warren Schaeffer.

DePodesta replaces Bill Schmidt, who stepped down on Oct. 1 following the Rockies' majors-worst 43-119 season.

It was their third consecutive 100-loss campaign -- the first three for a franchise that played its first game in 1993. Schmidt became interim general manager on May

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