PAWTUCKET — It was about 70 minutes before game time last night when Mike Hazen came walking into the Pawtucket Red Sox clubhouse carrying a big white box.

The contents were about to make for members of the PawSox exhilarated. Hazen handed them out during pre-game ceremonies at McCoy Stadium.

They were World Series rings. Hazen, the Red Sox director of player development, presented them to Jeff Bailey, Brandon Moss, Devern Hansack and Kyle Snyder.

In all, there were 14 players who spent time at Pawtucket and also contributed to Boston’s World Series championship. It does not matter to the Red Sox whether a player spent one day with the parent team, one month or the entire season.

“It’s a special night for those guys. They were part of that club. They contributed to that club winning,” Hazen said. “A lot of times races come down to one game. If they were members of the team, who is to say what one win they were part of made didn’t make the difference.”

The presentation made a point beyond the rings themselves. That is, that while the Red Sox are always active on the free-agent market, they have focused more than ever in recent years on developing their own players.

Anyone who attends PawSox games might have seen Hazen without knowing that he is the man in charge of player development. After representing the team in the pregame ceremonies, the former Princeton All-Ivy outfielder went up and took a seat in the section directly behind home plate to do his real work — scout the action.

He was not the only one on hand from the Boston organization. Rob Leary, the minor-league field coordinator and roving catching instructor was on hand, too.

Ron Johnson, the Pawtucket manager, spoke about how having Hazen, Leary and the other minor-league instructors around helps the players.

“The players appreciate it. They like being watched. They like knowing that people are paying attention to them,” Johnson said. “This organization leaves no stone unturned.”

Much of the extra assistance provided players is done at home games.

“We try to get them at home. That’s when we have access to the fields from noon to 7 p.m.,” Hazen noted. “On the road, our only access to fields is during batting practice. That’s why you will see a lot more of our instructors when teams are at home.”

Hazen spoke about how it is easier than ever for an organization to monitor players. Cameras have been installed at Boston’s minor-league parks to allow the parent team to watch games. Also, minor-league baseball has a Web site that shows games over the Internet, a set up that can be hooked up to televisions.

The Red Sox do that. But they also send Hazen and Leary and others to see games firsthand. Hazen estimates that he will be at McCoy for about 20 games this season.

“You get eyes watching firsthand and you get different views,” Johnson pointed out. “If we have problems, we get them corrected.”

Hazen spoke about how the fact that Pawtucket is so close to Boston helps the situation.

“We’re able to have a bigger presence because we’re so close,” he said. “I don’t have as big a presence in Greenville (a Class A team) as I do in Pawtucket or Portland (the Double-A team). This is a drive. That’s a flight. If there is a situation that comes up and we want to be here, I can hop in a car and be here. It’s not as easy to get a flight to Greenville or Lancaster (another Class A team in California).

“You’re a little bit at the mercy of how you’re set up, which is why this is such a beneficial structure for us,” he said.

pkenyon@projo.com