Bill Evers returns to Tampa Bay Rays minor league staff

November 5, 1:11 PMTampa Bay Sports ExaminerTed Fleming

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Bill Evers, as manager of the Durham Bulls

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ST. PETERSBURG – While their entire minor league staff will return for 2010 it has not kept the Tampa Bay Rays from adding three coordinators and a pair of scouts.

The most prominent name on the list is Bill Evers, who has spent 14-seasons with the Rays organization, the last two as a professional scout. The 57-year old New York native will be entering his 34th season in professional baseball and will join Jim Hoff as minor league field coordinator.

Since joining the organization in 1995, Evers served as manager Joe Maddon’s bench coach in 2006-07 after he was hired as the team’s fourth manager. He has five minor league championships to his credit, three for the Rays (1997 with the Florida State League’s St. Petersburg Rays and two more with the Durham Bulls of the International League in 2002 and 2003).

Evers has the distinction of managing the Rays first ever minor league game, a Gulf Coast League contest against the GCL Yankees on June 19, 1996. In 2006 he missed three weeks while recovering from surgery to remove a 7-inch tumor in his colon.

In addition to Evers, Matt Quatraro will join Steve Livesey as Hitting Coordinator and Dewey Robinson has been hired to join Dick Bosman as Pitching Coordinator. The scouting department added Matt Arnold the Director of Pro Scouting and Tateki “Bori” Uchibori an International Scout.

Uchibori is best known for being the interpreter for Akinori Iwamura, who was just traded to the Pittsburg Pirates. An interpreter for Japan’s Professional Baseball League for 10 years, he joined the team as a Cultural Assimilation Liaison and will now assist in scouting efforts primarily in Japan, as well as Korea and Taiwan.

“We made these additions to our player development staff because we want to support our young players as much as possible,” said Director of Minor League Operations Mitch Lukevics. “With nine affiliates and 270 players in our minor league system, we have more teams and players than ever before. We feel these additions will ensure that every player receives the attention he deserves.”