Gerrit Cole Shaves Famous Beard For Yankees’ Introductory Press Conference

Here it is … the FIRST picture of Gerrit Cole as a New York Yankee sans his famous beard — and we gotta say, IT LOOKS WEIRD!!!

The new Yanks’ ace adhered to team policy ahead of his introductory press conference Wednesday … ditching his face fur for the first time in a LONG time.

You can see the 29-year-old looks about 5 years younger … and if you saw his reaction to being forced to chop off his scruff earlier this week — ya can tell he was dreading this moment.

But, Cole does kinda look fresh … and seeing as he had about 324 MILLION reasons to pick up the razor this week, it was probably a good call.

As for his long hair, doesn’t seem Cole’s got around to cuttin’ that down just yet … but it looks like Yankees’ brass might let it slide if he goes with a little product in it.

By the way, the press conference is still ongoing … but it’s pretty clear the Yanks are STOKED to have the guy in pinstripes for the next 9 years … GM Brian Cashman even handed Cole’s wife a bouquet of roses!!

Oh, and Cole even showed up with the same sign he brought to Yankee Stadium when he was a fan of the team as a kid!!