With a rapt audience of reporters on hand, club president Randy Levine officially ushered in the A-Rod era in New York.
"This is the beginning," said Levine. "We welcome a great baseball player. A great New York Yankee."
Flanking Rodriguez were Yankees captain Derek Jeter, manager Joe Torre, Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson and general manager Brian Cashman.
New York manager Joe Torre puts a Yankees cap on the team's prized acquisition – Alex Rodriguez. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
"We're excited and proud for the chance to present one of the game's greatest players," Cashman said. "We welcome Alex Rodriguez and his family to our family."
"Wow. What a reception. I feel overwhelmed and very, very happy to be here," said Rodriguez during his first news conference in Yankee pinstripes.
"I feel very special and honoured. I hope that translates into being a good team player," said Rodriguez, who was born about five kilometres from the team's home in The Bronx.
The deal sends what many believe to be baseball's best player from one of the game's worst teams, the Texas Rangers, to one of its best.
"I've come to a point in my career when winning is the most important thing," said Rodriguez.
"Being a New York Yankee -- it provides the opportunity, when you drive to the ball park, every day you have a chance to win."
In exchange for Rodriguez, the Rangers received all-star second baseman Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named later.
The deal will see the Rangers pay $67 million US of the $179 million left on Rodriguez's 10-year, $252-million US contract. Texas will also pay deferred money to Rodriguez annually from 2016 through 2025.
"I'm pretty excited. This is a big, big one," said Yankees owner George Steinbrenner when asked about adding Rodriguez, the reigning American League MVP.
"It ranks with when we signed Reggie (Jackson)."
The 28-year-old Rodriguez joins an already star-studded and well-paid lineup. Some of Rodriguez's teammates include all-stars Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada.
The Yankees pitching staff includes cagey veterans Mike Mussina and Kevin Brown. And according to reports today, the Bronx Bombers are also interested in adding four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux.
The trade for Rodriguez leaves the Yankees' payroll at about $184 million.
New York has four of baseball's eight $100-million players, and its opening-day payroll will be six times that of some teams. Yankees paid $50 million in revenue sharing last year and another $12 million in luxury taxes.
Rodriguez will wear uniform No.13. He sported No.3 in both Seattle and Texas, but in New York that number forever belongs to Babe Ruth.
Rodriguez has also been asked to change positions. He may be the best shortstop since Rogers Hornsby, but he'll play third base for the Yankees. Jeter, despite being an inferior fielder, will stay at shortstop.
While some pundits think it may prove to be a mistake, Cashman said the club will not ask Jeter to change positions to make way for Rodriguez.
"You go with the man that brought you to the dance," he said. "We have arguably the best left side of the infield in the history of baseball."
A seven-time all-star, Rodriguez has a career batting average of .308. In 10 years he's hit 345 homers and and driven in 990 runs.
All but one of those home runs have come as a shortstop, which leaves him just one shy of Cal Ripken, Jr.'s all-time record.
Ripken, Jr. established the record over 2,303 games at shortstop. Rodriguez has only appeared in 1,266 games at the position.
Last season, Rodriguez led the AL with 47 home runs and was second with 118 RBIs.
Rodriguez is just the third player since 1932 to lead the AL in home runs for three straight years. Minnesota's Harmon Killebrew and Seattle's Ken Griffey, Jr. also accomplished it.
Rodriguez is also one of only three players in big league history with 40-plus home runs in at least six straight seasons. Ruth and Sammy Sosa are the two others.
Rodriguez appeared headed to the Yankees' archrivals, the Boston Red Sox, in December.
The Red Sox and the Rangers agreed on a tentative trade that would have sent Rodriguez to Boston for outfielder Manny Ramirez.
But the deal involving baseball's two highest-paid players fell apart when the players' union rejected Boston's proposed restructuring of Rodriguez's contract.
The union made a counter-proposal, but the financial terms weren't acceptable to the Sox.
It isn't the first time money has come between the Red Sox and the game's best player.
In 1920, then-Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth, the game's most revered player, to the Yankees in order to help finance a Broadway musical, No, No, Nanette.
The Red Sox nation points to that single event as the cause of close to a century's worth of heartache, the infamous Curse of the Bambino.
Since Ruth first donned the pinstripes, the Yankees have gone on to 26 World Series. The Red Sox, winners of five of the first 15 World Series, have not won since. Boston has appeared in four Series' since 1918 and lost all four in Game 7.
"We've long maintained that we are the hungry underdog," Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said Sunday.
"So now we are a little bit more hungry and a little bit more of an underdog. They still have to beat us on the field."
with files from Associated Press and Sports Network
