Did most random ex-Yankee possible try to poison the well in Yoshinobu Yamamoto chase?

Welcome back to another episode of baseball's most insipid game show: The Alex Cora Hintin' Game!

You might remember the premiere a few weeks back, right before the Yankees traded for both Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo, where Cora got cheeky at the Winter Meetings, chipmunking his way through a press conference while claiming Aaron Boone might be having a pretty decent December.

“I called Aaron Boone yesterday, FaceTimed him, and he gave me this kinda-like smile, this look. He was very happy. So something big might happen over there,” Cora told the gathered masses. Was he lying? Was he trying to make the Yankees look bad when they didn't deliver? What did he know? Was he excited that he'd foisted Verdugo on somebody else, blissfully unaware that the Soto Drop was about to make him pretty miserable, actually? Regardless, the couple of hours spent that day trying to pick through Cora's brain were very unpleasant.

And now we're back for episode two. Cora's Red Sox are reportedly lagging behind in the Yoshinobu Yamamoto chase. The right-hander visited the east coast and requested second meetings with the Yankees and Mets, but didn't visit Fenway Park. When asked about the circumstances, Cora got cheeky again and tried to spin that as a good thing through gritted teeth. It was tough to buy, but that doesn't mean Boston's manager didn't drop a disconcerting nugget along the way.

According to Cora, Yamamoto didn't have to visit Boston to love Boston. In fact, he had a mysterious teammate in his ear who might've played with the Astros, might've played with the Red Sox, and might've played with the Yankees. That person -- who definitely seems like Orix Buffaloes utility man Marwin González -- had "experience playing in New York, playing in Boston, experience playing in Houston ... played with people that are ex-MLB players and have the inside of a lot of stuff."

Yankees' Yoshinobu Yamamoto chances take hit with Marwin González's advice? Or...buhh?

Luckily, the Yankees also had a mole on the inside of that Buffaloes clubhouse -- lifelong Bronx Bomber fan Frank Schwindel! It's SCHWINDEL V. GONZÁLEZ, in the ADVICE-OFF OF THE CENTURY!

González, one of the genuine faces of the Astros' cheating scandal and among the precious few who actually apologized to the public, signed a large deal in Minnesota before spending time with Boston (.567 OPS) and the Yankees (.576 OPS) in 2022 and 2023. If being released by the Red Sox gave him a lifetime of good feelings towards Boston, then so be it, but this simply cannot be the factor that sways Yamamoto.

If he doesn't like the Yankees -- which doesn't seem to be the case, considering he called a second meeting -- then it was probably something Brian Cashman said, not a few pro-Cora nuggets from González. In the meantime, it might be a good idea for the Yankees to slip González a fiver and get him to talk some trash against the Dodgers. Weren't those fans pretty unpleasant to the Astros for a while? Just saying.