What was a rather quiet news Thursday in terms of baseball news culminated with a bombshell, as the league announced at 1:17am Friday morning that reigning NL batting champion and two-time All-Star Dee Gordon has been suspended 80 games for the use of banned substances exogenous testosterone and clostebol. The news was clearly difficult to swallow not only for Gordon’s Marlins but also for the Dodgers, who suffered a four-game sweep at the hands of the Marlins due in no small part to Gordon’s game-tying hit in last night’s series finale. Gordon signed a five-year, $50MM contract extension this winter and is arguably the highest-profile player to be hit with a PED suspension since the 2013 Biogenesis scandal saw the likes of Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun serve penalties. This morning, Gordon issued the following statement, via press release:
“Though I did not do so knowingly, I have been informed that test results showed I ingested something that contained prohibited substances. The hardest part about this is feeling that I have let down my teammates, the organization, and the fans. I have been careful to avoid products that could contain something banned by MLB and the 20+ tests that I have taken and passed throughout my career prove this. I made a mistake and I accept the consequences.”
Here are some early reactions from around the game (though there surely will be more to follow over the weekend)…
- The Gordon suspension will fuel the fire for debates about greater penalties for first-time offenders, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Rosenthal penned a column just a week ago in which players such as Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Matt Holliday and Clayton Kershaw all voiced an openness, if not a desire for stronger testing within the game. With the current collective bargaining agreement slated to expire on Dec. 1, the question will arise from recent suspensions of Gordon, Chris Colabello (and, last season, Ervin Santana) is whether there are enough players that have reached their breaking point on PED usage to push the MLBPA to concede to more extreme punishment. Holliday suggested to Rosenthal a two-year ban, though Rosenthal himself wonders if at a certain point the MLBPA will cave and allow some or all of a player’s long-term contract to be voided by PED usage. That, of course, would create plenty of other potential controversy, particularly if, for instance, a player on a decidedly poor contract (from the club’s vantage point) were to test positive for PEDs and then claim to have never taken a banned substance.
- Asked about losing Gordon for 80 games following such a high point (sweeping the Dodgers in L.A.), manager Don Mattingly offered the following comments (video link via Andre Fernandez of the Miami Herald): “Obviously two different ends of the spectrum for us as a team. You would expect our guys to be in there, excited, and then we get this news, so not quite the feeling… but, from there, we’ll support Dee. These guys love Dee. I feel like he’s one of my kids, to be honest with you. I’ve known him for so long, and I love him, and we’re going to move forward. … Definitely shocked and surprised. From there, it just happened so fast, it’s one of those situations where you love your kids, and that’s Dee, for me. That’s one of mine. … As a ball club, it’s a different scene. The story is, we have to move forward. And that’s what happens in professional sports: stuff happens, and you move forward, and you’ve got to find a way to get around it.”
- Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes that Derek Dietrich is the most logical alternative for the Marlins with Gordon out for half the season. The club could consider moving Martin Prado back to second base and playing Chris Johnson (or Dietrich) at third base, and there’s an argument to go with the defensive-minded Miguel Rojas at second base as well. However, Dietrich has made nearly half of his Major League starts as a second baseman, and while he’s not a plus defender like Gordon or Rojas, he’s batted a very solid .263/.352/.471 in 321 plate appearances dating back to last season (albeit with the benefit of some fairly heavy platooning to shield him from left-handed pitching).
- Gordon’s suspension is a reminder that there’s no way to reasonably predict who could be using performance enhancing drugs, writes Yahoo’s Jeff Passan, referencing Gordon’s 171-pound frame. Passan also notes that continued suspensions even in the face of increased testing and stronger penalties for first-time offenders lead to collateral damage like Stephen A. Smith’s recent, baseless comments on Jake Arrieta, which can blame the irresponsible speculation on the mere fact that others in the game continue to cheat the system (or at least attempt to do so). Passan opines that regardless of how much pressure is placed on the MLBPA to consider allowing teams to void multi-year deals for PED offenders, the Players Association “understands that’s the sort of Pandora’s Box nobody dare open.”
- ESPN’s Buster Olney writes that Gordon’s suspension serves only as further proof that the potential reward for using PEDs far outweighs the risks. The Marlins don’t know if Gordon was using PEDs during his breakout 2014 with the Dodgers, nor do they know if banned substances contributed to Gordon’s brilliant followup in 2015, when he hit .333/.359/.418 to lead the league in hitting (and also led the NL with 58 steals). The team will owe Gordon roughly $48MM despite the suspension, which will cost him about $1.63MM worth of pay this season. The discrepancy between those two sums is only magnified when juxtaposed with Olney’s stories of his interactions with Gordon early in his career, when he was struggling simply to stay in the Major Leagues after being relegated to the bench and changing positions. That’s not to say that Gordon used PEDs during that time — we have no way of knowing that, and he’s passed dozens of tests prior to his recent transgression — but players in similar situations can certainly look to Gordon’s situation and see the temptation of banned substances.
Did all of these guys have the same lawyer write their response? It always starts with “I have no idea how I took a PED” and ends with “But I’ll take the consequences and I know it’s my team that will suffer more.”
Seriously. Man up. Admit what you did and don’t try to pretend this is all a surprise.
ARod manned up and got crucified by it. Ortiz is the one who first came up with this “I don’t know how I could have tested positive” excuse and the writers still cover for him.
I get the logic behind cancelling a player’s contract, but man oh man that could have ugly unintended consequences.
Not happy you signed a terrible player for $300MM? Just spike his drink — or at least the player could claim that’s what happened.
Conversely, not happy you signed a 10 year $10MM deal as a 23 year old? Just take some PEDs, deal with the PR fallout, and you’re suddenly a free agent.
Good points.
Never thought about it that way. That’s a great point.
I get what you said but if someone had a ten year ten million contract the team would not cut him. They would only do so on large contracts
Commissioner Manfred (with support of the owners and the players union) need to think hard about what to do with this subject in this ‘post’ steroid era. All have ‘everything’ to lose (look at salaries post 2010, potential expansion, tv revenues and tv projections)… Why put any of this at risk?
Right now most people reading about D Gordon’s ‘decision’ (to do whatever he did, whenever he did it, and for however long he did it), can see the $50mm payoff he got …
If PED’s are creeping back into the sport, it needs to be stopped with ‘vigor.’
I love the idea of 2 years for 1st offense. (Talking about existing MLB their performance) players ‘considering’ PEDs to enhance This is a big enough window, where most any player would realize that being this far away from the sport makes is almost impossible to come back (even a ‘comeback’ would involve 1-2 more years at low salary, likely minor league contracts on top of the 2 years of lost salary).
There is a totally separate conversation for PEDs in minor league ball. MiLB is really where the ‘risk’ (of getting caught) vs the reward ($507,000 min salary vs $1400-$2000/mo for 6 months) is a marginal deterrent at best.
Teams already have total salary control of minor league players, if MLB is serious about preventing PEDs in baseball why not start with implementing ‘real’ penalties at this level?
[Sorry, editing got scrambled]… (Talking about existing MLB players) considering ‘PEDs’ to enhance their performance …
An “exogenous” source of a naturally occurring vital hormone- it’s time to stop making irrational rules to pander to the ignorant masses. You can’t turn an average joe into a nutritionist, much less an endocrinologist. Long story short no hormone makes you heal like a comic book character. Not shot or shake makes your muscles magically expand. I wonder what his t levels were?
Makes his trade by the Dodgers look better now than when it first happened.
For a moment, let’s take him at his word and say that he didn’t “knowingly ingest”, How do we deal with that? If the implications are supplements, perhaps the answer is for MLB and MLBPA to work together to have standard protocols and a certification process for manufacturers. If the player is really concerned that he won’t inadvertently ingest, let him use only approved products that are constantly tested. If I’m on the union side, and believe that the player’s test was, without intent, impacted by a tainted “protein shake” I could get behind that idea.
That seems like a good idea. At least it gives players who are worried about this sort of thing a different route to take. On the flip side, if someone gets popped for using, the “I didn’t know excuse” loses credibility because you can say they should have been using an approved regimen.
One idea is to have teams continue to pay their contract after they come back, but give a percentage of the money to improve the research and development of the testing protocol.
Still hate Braun.
Should’ve been black balled out of baseball for the stunt he pulled
This is getting stupid. I never could wrap my head around the positive tests and then the denials. I even leaned toward believing these players. I wonder if the things the dopers are taking are drugs their “trainers” or vitamin dudes or whoever tell them are undetectable 100%. Otherwise why take them? There is no reward for knowing you’ll get busted if you get tested. I’m under the thinking these guys know every last thing they eat. The thing that ticks me off is when they lie. I don’t really care if guys use PED’s or not.