Yankees clearly trying to bait Alex Cora into lineup gaffe with rotation vs. Red Sox

The New York Yankees reshuffled their rotation this week with Fenway Park's looming left-field wall in mind. After a weekend beatdown in the Bronx (two bleak losses where nobody could stop the bleeding following a little-too-exciting Friday night win), it was the literal least they could do before a Friday-Sunday rematch.

At first blush, though, the Yankees' shuffle seemed to be a half-measure. Instead of removing Ryan Yarbrough from the weekend series and inserting last week's sole winner (Will Warren), Yarbrough was still slated to open the three-gamer against Garrett Crochet on Friday. Soft-tossing left-handers aren't exactly built for Fenway. Wouldn't the Yankees have preferred Yarbs get a crack at the Royals at The K on Thursday?

But after Alex Cora's comments on Wednesday, things make a little more sense.

The Yankees will now send Yarbrough, Carlos Rodón and Max Fried to the bump, forcing Cora into an awkward corner with star rookies Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony. Neither has been used consistently against top-tier lefties at the MLB level yet (even though Anthony more than held his own against southpaws down at Triple-A).

Would Boston dare promote Anthony to give themselves a spark, then juggle the responsibility of benching him all weekend long? Boone at least wants his buddy Cora thinking about it.

Yankees trying to trick Alex Cora into Red Sox lineup mistake, but Boston probably has the antidote

Yeah (taps tire with hammer), so here's your problem: the Red Sox did a good job constructing a platoon bench with intentionality, so they're probably gonna be fine here either way, Chief.

Romy Gonzalez and Rob Refsnyder both have .950+ OPS marks against left-handed pitching this year; Gonzalez already tortured Brent Headrick with the bases loaded last week. Whether Mayer or Anthony sits doesn't mean all that much, in the grand scheme of things. Any benching will get Sox Twitter riled up, but they might not actually affect the outcome.

Above all else, the Yankees just have to hope Rodón/Fried shove. The former has done it at Fenway before; the latter has bedeviled every American League team he's faced so far this year, but hasn't gotten a chance to flex against the club he almost signed with yet.

A little bit of mind games never hurt anybody, but most of the Yankees' talking had better be done on the field this time, rather than in the cheap real estate of Alex Cora's noggin.