Here is the transcript of the John Lackey introductory press conference from Wednesday afternoon, at Fenway Park (courtesty the Red Sox’ media relations machine):

1.  Theo Epstein opening statement:

We’re thrilled today to be able to announce that we signed John Lackey to a five-year contract. John’s addition to an already solid pitching staff is a significant boost to this ballclub. He’s somebody that we look to be an anchor in our rotation for a long time coming.

2.  John Lackey on excitement to be pitching for the Red Sox:

Obviously I’ve been here for some big games and really competed against these guys quite a bit. I’m here to win, that’s the bottom line. I’ve always had a lot of respect for this organization from the other side. Winning is the biggest thing for me and I know this organization has a great chance to do that and hopefully I can help out.

3.  Epstein on Lackey deal:

We touched base with Steve Hilliard, John’s agent, really early in the off season. We were actually a little bit surprised when Steve said John had a lot of interest in pitching for the Red Sox. Watching him from across the field we’ve always seen him as a big game pitcher, a top of the rotation guy, and a really tough competitor but we never really thought he’d be interested in Boston. I guess it’s one of those things, when you play across the field from someone you just kind of see them as the opposition and that’s it. He said John’s really serious about Boston, he wants to win, he loves how every game in Boston is like a playoff game, he can really see himself there. That got our attention in ahurry and we proceeded to stay and really get in touch with Steve. We had a couple different versions of an offseason plan. Some involved spending more resources on a big time position player and getting pitching depth but this really intrigued us as an alternative. The deeper we got into the off season, the more intrigued we got, the more we dug about John and his personality and his fit for the Red Sox and what it would mean to our rotation and the future of our rotation we got more and more interested. Talks developed well and it ended up being the right path for us.

4.  Epstein on assumption that Lackey wouldn’t want to come to Boston:

Oh, no, it was discussed, every free agent’s discussed. He’s somebody that we’ve admired, we’ve seen up close, including right at the very end of our season, how good of a pitcher he is. He’s somebody we’ve always considered a top of the rotation guy, he’d be coming into free agency and someone to keep our eye on, but we never really knew about his interest in being a Red Sox. You don’t find that stuff out until free agency often times. He really got our attention and made us focus some more on it and as the off season developed, it seemed clear to us that this was the right way to go. We could not only make next year’s rotation potentially elite but really solidify our rotation for a long time with the addition of John Lackey.

5.  Lackey struggles while on pitching at Fenway:

A lot of that had to do with going against a great team and now being a part of it I’m excited about that. If you look at the last couple of years, I’ve done pretty well here. I’m excited about the opportunity and just really fired up to be a part of this organization.

6.  Epstein on five-year deal:

When you enter into free agency from the team side, you want to try and manage the commitments as best you can and obviously you always want shorter deals, you always try to get the best deal you can for your club. John’s someone, with his track record and his consistency, who has put himself in a position to deserve a contract like this if you look at recent signings and last year’s free agent pitching signings for example, certainly John ranks right up there with those guys who got similar contracts if not exceeds them. It’s something we had to think long and hard about but in the end we believe in John, we believe in our pitching and our starting pitching going forward that this puts us in the best position. If you look on paper, we’ll put our starting five right up there with anybody’s. I think our run prevention overall is going to be really solid, we like our lineup, and as we talked about this morning, this puts us in a position to have some flexibility if we need to make a move down the road to have some offense. If you’re bold in free agency and there’s mutual interest, maybe you can add somebody like John Lackey to your club. It’s certainly not something you can necessarily count on doing in the middle of the season. We like the position we’re in right now. We have some depth, some options, and some flexibility going forward.

7.  Lackey on decision to come to Boston:

I was always interested in coming here. Winning was definitely my first priority of a team to go to. With this franchise and their history and the way I’ve seen from the other side of the field, I’ve been knocked out of the playoffs a few times by them, I know I’m going to have a chance to win here and that means a lot.

There’s been a lot of emotion both ways in regards to this team. You get knocked out of the playoffs, there’s not much worse than that, then I’ve thrown a couple of pretty good games here and finally we got it done last year but it’s more just the respect factor. When you compete against a team that many times, you see what they’re about, and it will be a good fit for me I think.

8. Lackey on Red Sox rotation:

I know Josh a little bit from the ’07 All-Star Game, I haven’t met Jon Lester, but as far as John Farrell, he actually recruited me to go to Oklahoma State when he was there so I’ve talked to him on the phone several times back then. I’m excited about it. I’ve hear nothing but good things about those guys, about their work ethic, and I’m ready to jump in with them and get it on.

9. Epstein on Lackey being on Red Sox radar from the beginning of the off season:

It was a parallel track the whole time. In fact, we told Steve at the beginning of the process that I wasn’t 100% sure I could be I want to negotiate with you as if we are and then by the time we get to the winter meetings and through the winter meetings we should have a pretty good idea because we want this to happen. If John has interest in the Red Sox let’s negotiate as if we’re in, we’re going to pursue parallel paths, and at the end of the day pick the best path for the Boston. And that’s how it happened.

10. Lackey on comparisons with Josh Beckett:

I don’t know him incredibly well, just hanging out at an All-Star Game, just talking. Our lockers were next to each other at that. So shagging, just kind of shooting the breeze kind of stuff, but always a respect factor. Especially, I’ve gone against him several times in some big games. You know you’ve got to bring it because you know he’s going to bring it, and I hope these people feel the same way about me because you can’t always guarantee results, but I will guarantee that I’ll be there giving you what I’ve got.

11. Lackey on whether he had to push his agent to make sure the Red Sox knew he was interested:

A little bit, yeah I did. For whatever reasons – being knocked out of the playoffs a few times, being frustrated with that kind of stuff – they obviously didn’t think that I would be interested. But I always was interested and definitely had to have my agent really let them know that I was really serious about this. And the wife helped out a lot with this. It was like, “My wife went to UNH. Come on, I’m being serious here.” That helped out a little bit.

12. Francona on having three top of the rotation pitchers:

I think it’s going to make us all a lot smarter. Every time Theo asked me a question during the Winter Meetings, I would always say a pitcher. And now we have a chance to run out a really solid pitcher every day. It’s very exciting. And again, it’s on paper right now, but it’ll be our responsibility to go down to Spring Training and make it all work. But it’s very exciting.

13. Lackey on the passion of Red Sox fans:

I’m definitely ready for it. That’s one of the things that drew me here. I enjoy pitching in big games and like Theo said, it’s going to be like a playoff game pretty much every night here. That’s going to be a fun environment to be in. Just walking around the city yesterday, I can’t tell you how many people came up to me welcoming me to town. It’s been fun. I’m really excited about it.

14. Epstein on how Lackey’s arm trouble played into making a five year commitment:

It’s a part of every time you sign a pitcher. It’s a big part of the research. Trust me, we’ve done a lot of due diligence. If you look back at April 2008 was triceps issue, soft tissue, that certainly has resolved itself. And doing our research on what happened this last April, it was probably a little bit of a rush through Spring Training to get ready, and we think that John’s spring routine, it’s something we’ve already talked about, maybe it can be handled a little differently to resolve that. But when he came back he didn’t miss a start. He’s been, outside of those two episodes, extraordinarily durable throughout his entire career and is someone who obviously finished strong last year. The last image of John Lackey is him demanding the ball on the field of Yankee Stadium. So he’s somebody that we strongly believe is healthy. Trust me, we put him through quite a physical over the last 48 hours, and he’s someone we trust to take the ball every fifth day.

14. Lackey on his negotiations with other teams:

I’m not going to get too far into it, but it was more than two (teams), it wasn’t just those two. It always tough to make a change like this, but I’m really, really excited about it. That’s all I know, that’s all I’ve known since I was drafted is the Angels, so they were definitely in on it for sure. But in the end I came to the decision that it was time for me to move on, it was time for me to take a new challenge.