Given the arms-crossed fit that Jonathan Papelbon threw during spring training last season when he wasn't even eligible for arbitration rights, it was certainly the Sox front office's wisest strategy to lock up their closer and make him a record-setter before the Sox equipment truck even left the driveway.

The Sox were simply looking for a fair deal for one of their key players that will keep him healthy, happy and focused on repeating some of the unhittable, unprecedented numbers he's piled up in three seasons as Boston's closer. They did one better and gave him an historic arbitration-eligible award for a first-year closer, and let him "set the bar" as he was hoping to last spring. 

The 28-year-old is one of four pitchers ever to record 30 or more saves in at least each of his first three full big league seasons, joining Billy Koch (4), Kazuhiro Sasaki (3) and Todd Worrell (3). He trails Bob Stanley (132) for second in Red Sox history with 113 career saves, the third-highest total in the majors from 2006-08.
 
Papelbon is 13-10 in 202 games/three starts over 230.0 career innings. His 1.84 ERA is the second-lowest in major league history since 1900 among pitchers with at least 200.0 innings behind Ed Walsh (1.82). Boston’s fourth round selection in the 2003 First-Year Player Draft is 2-0 with seven saves in 16 career playoff games and has thrown a post-season record 25.0 innings without allowing a run.

Now Papelbon is the proud owner of the highest arbitration award ever given out to a first-year arbitration-eligible closer in Major League Baseball history with a $6.25 million award -- trumping the $5.5 million awarded to Chicago White Sox righty Bobby Jenks yesterday. It's almost enough to make Papelbon want to dance, dance, dance like it's 2007 all over again. 

Here's the transcript from today's conference call with Sox Assistant GM Jed Hoyer to discuss the signings for both Papelbon and Javier Lopez (who also picked up a cool $1.35 million to provide his left-handed services) along with an admission that the Sox are stocking up on arms this winter in part because of two prolonged postseason runs over the last baseball seasons.

There's also the obligatory no comment on Jason Varitek...wouldn't be a Sox conference call/press gathering without it. Enjoy:

How important was it to avoid arbitration with Jonathan today, and how satisfying was it to avoid that part of it?
JH: It was certainly satisfying. We definitely don’t go into the [arbitration] process saying that we’re going to avoid it. You go in and try to get a fair number for the team, but obviously in the back of our minds we have two players going into the situation that have meant a lot to the team and won a lot of games for us. You certainly don’t want to go into a hearing room if you don’t have to, so it’s satisfying.

In the case of Jonathan, was there much of an effort on both sides to get a long term deal done? JH: Sure. We did have some discussion along the way. Certainly those discussions are open and we may pick them up going forward. In the interest of time and of not exchanging numbers, we though the best thing to do was just go with a one-year number today. But we are certainly open to exploring those ideas going forward and we hope their side is too.

In terms of tying up young players, when you’re looking at closers – and the volatility and injuries inherent in the position over the long term -- in particular, do you view locking them up long term any differently than you would positional players or starting pitchers in the same situations? JH: Well, I think you do everything on a case-by-case and player-by-player basis. In Pap’s case, we feel like we have one of the best – if not the best – closers in the game. Obviously we consider all factors and consider the context, but we try to look at the individual player rather than just taking a huge sampling of other people at the position.

But of course we’re always going to consider all of those factors when we’re looking into a long term deal.

Was it important to award him the highest arbitration figure for a first-time eligible player given some of the historical things that he’s done for the franchise thus far in his career? JH: Yeah, I think he’s earned. Bobby Jenks became the highest award earned [for a first-timer] yesterday and we felt like Jonathan deserved some separation between himself and Bobby. It wasn’t so much us giving him the highest [number] ever as much as it was him really earning it.

Can you talk about the amount of depth that you’ve been able to build in the starting rotation and the bullpen? JH: I don’t think we’ve had this kind of depth before. I think it’s something that we’ve learned a little bit through trial and error. We went in a little thinner before and at certain times it has hurt us. A priority for us going into the offseason was to get enough depth going into the season and one thing we did factor in this offseason was that we’ve played deep into October the last two years and certainly that’s going to take a toll on our pitcher. Given how deep we’ve pitched into October, it really seemed like the right thing to do this winter.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the arbitration figure for Ryan Howard but it’s pretty big. How do you think the nation’s economy and the baseball economy are going to factor into arbitration hearings this year? JH: That’s really a question that’s going to be posed to the Phillies, Mr. Howard’s representation and possibly a three-person panel, so that’s not really for me to comment on.

Just wondering if you felt like the economy was going to effect arbitration decisions, and that might have affected the decision to sign Papelbon now? JH: That’s a difficult question to answer. I think that there’s no question that over time if the salaries drop and the economy doesn’t come back how it will be affected. This was about signing our two players, and that was really our focus.

What can you tell us about this Williamson guy? JH: Well, he’s a guy that we’re excited about. We got good reports on him. He’s a guy that’s an athletic left-handed pitcher. He’s a 22nd rounder out of Seattle, but he’s performed well. We were in a situation where we designated David and we were happy to get a quality player in return.

Since you and Theo arrived in Boston there’s been a long record of avoiding arbitration with players. How much is that a point of pride for the front office and can you just talk about the general philosophy of looking to avoid arbitration with players if possible. JH: I think Theo’s philosophy is that we have to prepare to go to a hearing every single time, and we have a lot of people working on that. We always make sure we go ahead and do all the work, so we’re always prepared and we keep that in mind during the negotiations.

But I think, if possible, it’s the right thing to do. Arbitration is not a great process for any team. You’ve got to go in there and speak ill of your own players, and it possible we like to avoid that. So far we’ve been able, but in part we’ve always felt like we’ve come to a fair deal in [avoiding arbitration]. At some we’re probably going to have to go to a hearing, but we’ve been happy, so far, that we’ve been able to avoid it. I think the agents on the other side certainly deserve some credit for working with us and understanding what we’re trying to do here.

Just wondering if there’s any update on the Varitek situation given the visit with John Henry last week, and whether anything has changed for either side? JH: Yeah, I’ll let Theo answer that because he’s been closer to that situation than I’ve been. I’ll give a no comment on that one.