No. There were no setups here. This expectation was created by you fans only.
Not saying that this wouldn't be an interesting approach (I even theorized it after the two year time skip at the time if I remember correctly) but this is just a theory, holding only on potential hints and clue, no actual setups.
We have to be very careful when we talk about Storytelling.
Expectations must ONLY come when there are setups involved, not when there are concording clues like Carrot's situation or Franky.
A example of clear setup is for example this :
This is what we call a setup. A direct one.