Angels hire Bill Richardson as Orem manager

The Angels have hired Bill Richardson, who spent the last five seasons in the Texas Rangers organization, to manage their short-season Class-A team at Orem, Utah, General Manager Jerry Dipoto said Friday.

Richardson, 52, will replace Tom Kotchman, who resigned in October after 29 years in the Angels organization, 23 of them managing short-season Class-A clubs in Idaho and Utah.

Dipoto had asked Kotchman, the father of big league first baseman Casey Kotchman, to give up his on-field duties at Orem to focus on scouting. Kotchman chose to do neither, and he subsequently took a job coaching the Boston Red Sox’s rookie team in the Gulf Coast League.

Richardson, 52, managed the Rangers’ rookie-league team in Arizona in 2008 and 2009 and spent the last three years managing their Class-A club in Hickory, N.C. Before joining the Texas organization, he spent 20 years coaching high school baseball in the Sacramento area.

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