Catching Dee Gordon necessary part of the price for punishing PEDs

3:04 AM ET

If you were going to conjure up a list of players you think are using PEDs today, I’m willing to bet that speedy second baseman Dee Gordon of the Miami Marlins probably wasn’t on it, certainly not high, if at all. That says more about what we think we know about PEDs or their impact on player performance than anything else. But with Gordon’s suspension coming so soon after Chris Colabello of the Blue Jays received a similar 80-game suspension, you can make the quick, easy, necessary and hard conclusion that PED use and abuse isn’t going away in baseball, any more than it ever will in any other sport.

That’s probably the lone, grim bit of reassurance here. Baseball’s testing program doesn’t just exist and isn’t just the stuff of positive press releases. The game’s enduring commitment to catch the people using PEDs, no matter who they are or how well they’re playing, is a demonstrated fact. Again.

But coming as it does barely seven months since Gordon won the National League batting title in 2015 by hitting .333, after he led the majors with 205 base hits and 58 stolen bases, there are a bunch of bleak notes to strike here.

First, it’s glum news because Gordon’s breakthrough last season was initially interpreted as one of those bits of feel-good redemption the game gives us as fans and players like Gordon all the time. A change of scenery, a second chance, the opportunity to show people what you can do, that was all apparently earned last season because of what Gordon did on the field. This isn’t merely some comfortable narrative we’re chucking, but a big portion of a person’s life.

Second, I say that not to …

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