Any pundit who picks the Red Sox to finish first in the A.L. East this season –– and there are many –– should give Theo Epstein, et al, extra credit for frugality.

The Red Sox improved their team this offseason despite boasting an Opening Day payroll that should decline $13 million from last year, to approximately $120 million, mostly due to the departure of Manny Ramirez.

Meanwhile, other teams –– beyond just the free-spending Yankees –– have seen their payrolls rise this winter, meaning the Red Sox ranking among the highest payrolls in the league should slip from fourth-highest payroll in 2008 to sixth this season, just ahead of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The Yankees lead the way at roughly $207 million, with the Mets next at $140 million. The Phillies, Cubs, and Tigers are next up, and then the Red Sox should come in at just under $120 million, equal to their payroll from 2006.

This comes after an offseason when the Red Sox have signed three players ( Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, and Jon Lester) to long-term deals, and brought in several free agents with incentive-laden contracts.

The long-term deals were heavily back-loaded, which should give the Red Sox flexibility this season to add payroll if a marquee player comes available on the trade market this summer.

The Red Sox are certainly still one of the highest-spending clubs in the majors, but the days when it was Yankees, Red Sox, and then everybody else seem to be history, at least for now.

That may be as much due to the Yankees spending more than the Red Sox spending less. With their new ballpark opening, the Yankees this spring have passed the Red Sox in average ticket price for the first time in 13 years.

To field a team that can win in the new stadium, they signed three of the four highest-priced free agents on the market this winter.

The Yankees have reportedly spent 38 percent of the total dollars expended on free agents over the past two offseasons. The Red Sox spent 3 percent. The Red Sox would undoubtedly have been happier if they had landed free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira, and added his $20-million annual cost to their payroll, but he went to the Yankees instead.

Regardless, the Red Sox now find themselves in the interesting position of having a payroll that seems to fit better in a group with the $85-million Toronto Blue Jays, $65-million Tampa Bay Rays and $75-million Baltimore Orioles than to the $200 million Yankees.

The Opening Day payroll does not encompass everything spent on baseball operations, of course. There are other costs ranging from benefits to draftee signing bonuses to minor leaguer salaries that all teams pay, and that are factored into a team’s overall luxury tax figure.

In these areas, the Red Sox may actually be spending far more than nearly all other teams, applying their financial advantage as a big-market club to areas where it may bring more return than the hit-or-miss free agent market.

They have committed large signing bonuses to draft picks, often snagging better players in late rounds because other teams know these players will not sign and attend college if they do not receive a significant signing bonus.

In just the last three years, the Sox have paid $12.5 million in signing bonuses to only 10 players, with the highest the $3 million given to shortstop/pitcher Casey Kelly and the $2 million for Rhode Islander Ryan Westmoreland.

Every team pays these bonuses. The Red Sox pay more than most, and their excellent drafts recently are the result of pressing their financial advantage.

They have also committed significant contracts to foreign players, which in the case of Japanese players, can mean paying pricey ‘posting fees’ to their current team for the right to hammer out a contract. The $51 million paid to secure the rights to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2006 is well known.

The most recent Japanese signee, Junichi Tazawa, did not require a posting fee, but it still took a $3.3-million contract over three years to sign the pitcher, and that $1.1 million in 2009 also does not appear on the Opening Day roster figure.

It’s likely the 2010 payroll will look fairly similar to the 2009 version. Most of the team’s key players have deals in place already, or like Josh Beckett, have a club option. The Red Sox could consummate a deal in the coming months to keep Jason Bay around long-term, and Jonathan Papelbon will be up for another contract after this offseason. But for the next two years, the club should have both the luxury of a young core under contract, and the financial flexibility to play around in the free agent and trade markets if it wishes.

dbarbari@projo.com