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.