Bill Evers

William Joseph Evers (born January 29, 1954) is an American professional baseball coach and a former minor league player and longtime manager and instructor.  In November 2018, he was named a coach on the staff of Rocco Baldelli, the  manager of the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball.  The appointment marked the second MLB staff assignment of Evers' 44-year baseball career: he spent  and  as the bench coach during Joe Maddon's first two seasons as skipper of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. 

Career
Evers was born in New York City.   He received his BA in management and recreation from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1976 and was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the sixth round of the secondary phase of the June 1976 Major League Baseball Draft.  During his four-year playing career, Evers was a catcher and first baseman who batted and threw right-handed; he was listed as  tall and .  Peaking at the Triple-A level with 30 games played in 1978–79, he hit 11 home runs with an even 200 hits in 274 total games, with 161 walks and 113 strikeouts. 

After coaching in the Cubs' minor-league organization, Evers became a manager in the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees systems through 1995, then joined the fledgling Tampa Bay Devil Rays' organization in 1996, two seasons before the Rays' American League debut.  He spent ten years managing in Tampa Bay's farm system, including eight seasons at the helm of the Durham Bulls, the club's Triple-A affiliate, where he managed Baldelli as a young player.  By the time he was named the MLB Rays' bench coach for 2006, Evers had spent 19 years as a minor-league pilot and compiled a 1,381–1,206 (.534) record, then the second-most wins among active minor-league managers.  He won five minor league championships and managed three of the Rays' five minor league championship teams through 2005. 

In , Evers was succeeded as bench coach by former Devil Ray player Dave Martinez.  He then served Tampa Bay as a scout for two seasons, and spent nine years (2010–2018) as the field coordinator for the Rays' minor league organization.  In all, he was a member of the Rays' system for 23 years before his appointment to Baldelli's Twins brain trust. 

References

External links

Coach's page from Retrosheet

Category:1954 births
Category:Living people
Category:Baseball coaches from Florida
Category:Baseball coaches from New York (state)
Category:Baseball players from Florida
Category:Baseball players from New York (state)
Category:Durham Bulls managers
Category:Eckerd Tritons baseball players
Category:Gulf Coast Cubs players
Category:Major League Baseball bench coaches
Category:Major League Baseball coaches
Category:Midland Cubs players
Category:Minnesota Twins coaches
Category:Minor league baseball managers
Category:Pompano Beach Cubs players
Category:Tampa Bay Devil Rays coaches
Category:Tampa Bay Rays scouts
Category:Wichita Aeros players