The Marlins announced today that they’ve activated Dee Gordon from the restricted list and designated infielder Don Kelly for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 25- and 40-man rosters.
[Related: Updated Miami Marlins Depth Chart]
Gordon has been out since April due to an 80-game suspension that stemmed from a failed PED test. The 28-year-old batted .266/.289/.340 with six stolen bases through his first 21 games of the season before being hit with a suspension that comes on the heels of a five-year, $50MM contract extension this past offseason. He’ll presumably reclaim his spot at or near the top of the Miami lineup, and his return figures to cut into the playing time for Derek Dietrich, who has slashed .272/.363/.393 this season in Gordon’s stead while seeing the lion’s share of the playing time at second base. Gordon, of course, will serve as a major boost to manager Don Mattingly’s lineup if he can replicate his 2014-15 form, which saw him bat .311/.342/.398 with an MLB-leading 122 stolen bases in that time.
Via Uninterrupted, Gordon has issued a new video apology to his fans and to the Marlins organization for his suspension. “I made a mistake, man, but just like in this game you’ve got to learn, come back and be stronger and better,” said Gordon during his three-minute video. “…You’ve got to hold yourself accountable for your standards of living and training. I didn’t hold myself accountable for any of that. I thought I would never, being the smallest guy, I would never fail a drug test. I didn’t pay attention at all. I didn’t meet the standards. That’s my fault and no one else’s.”
Kelly, 36, batted .148/.200/.296 with a pair of triples in 30 plate appearances for the Marlins following his brief call-up earlier this month. He stepped into the big league picture when Justin Bour landed on the disabled list with an ankle sprain. Bour remains on the shelf for the time being, so it’s feasible that the left-handed-hitting Dietrich could slide over to first base and platoon there with Chris Johnson in place of Bour. He’ll move around the diamond a fair amount once Bour is healthy in an attempt to keep his bat in the lineup.
My Fantasy Team the Fighting Turtles thanks you Dee with your timely suspension this year
Mine does too! Fantasy salvation!
And so does my fantasy team.
But I also had Matt Harvey, Kyle Schwarber, and Michael Brantley to go along with Gordon. So Gordon only helps me get a worse draft position for 2017. Thanks a lot.
I had Connor McClavicle on fantasy hockey team last year 🙁
Never cared for Dee
Nobody ever cared for you either
Your mom did
Lol
Definitely start Gordon over Dietrich and maybe trade Hechavarria for a prospect or two and put Gordon at short or second and Dietrich at either second or short. Either position works for both probably but probably Gordon would be better at short since he used to play there for the Dodgers as a rookie
that can’t happen as Gordon can’t play the playoffs
Marlins won’t even make the playoffs so your comment is irrelevant
Poor Don Kelly, has the best game of his career, then the next day gets DFA’d to make room for a cheater.
Never fail a drug test being the smallest guy…? Please tell me this wasn’t actually his thought process.
Lol, I was thinking the same thing. Not very bright……
I’m so tired of these PED offenders. I’d love to see a life time ban put into effect for first time offenders. Just rid these cheaters from the sport. Not fair to the guys who go about things the right way.
My question is why would you play Gordon? This may just be speculation but he was not very good with the Dodgers, got traded, maybe took up PED and won a batting title, I know you need to be at least decent to have steroids to even work, you can’t just take them then become the next MVP, you need to make contact with the ball. But in all honesty what says that Gordon won’t regress to those dodger days. While Dietrich is putting up a decent slash with Good defensive metrics (I could be wrong) but you’ll play Gordon over him
Dee was great at defense so that’s already an improvement. And Dee was good with the Dodgers too so it wasn’t anything new. And Dietrich is moving to first base
Dee won a gold glove last year with .992 fielding percentage which is ok, but Gordon has already committed 2 errors in 26 games for a fielding percentage of .986, which is a small sample size but Gold Glovers should be around .995ish consistently. Not to mention how par of a defender he was in 2013 playing 2B for the Dodgers, which he had a 12 errors in 144 games or a .981 FP
And Gordon combined with the Dodgers put up a 1.6 WAR campaign from 20011-2014 in which he had 34 RBI in his “highlight” dodger season in 2014 before the aforementioned trade. His OPS is already really low which may be his lack of home runs but his OBP is also basically replacement level so… The only thing he has is sub .300 BA from 2011-2014 before his “breakout” So he’s been ok, not good, ok not to mention a -1.2 war season in 2012…
Dietrich on the other hand has had 4 errors at 2B in 71 games or a .985 FP, basically 3 times the games Gordon has played and he has had less errors on average on the season, Dietrich also has zero errors at any other position he has played
Dietrich has also put up a 1.4 WAR season to date and overall is 1.5 WAR in his time with MIA, which is 3 years and he didn’t even get full playing time for the first 2 years and yes granted Gordon didn’t either but he also put a -1.2 WAR season, (Almost all because of his lack of competence at SS)
Also Dietrich has put up decent slash metrics before hitting a slump this month, he was hitting over .300 and has historically better OBP than Gordon, he also OPSd better than .800 last year and is on pace for at least 9 HR.
So Gordon only gets this hype because of his admittedly “cheat” season of 2015.
Dietrich’s stats are just going lower
While I’ll agree, he’s been historically better than Gordon in OBP and is on par with Gordon in the field so I would play Dietrich over Gordon any day
People make mistakes. He did own up to these mistakes in his comments.
A mistake is what Raul Mondesi Jr. did. Dee knew what he was doing. That was on purpose.
He did serve his punishment though, so I don’t see anything wrong with him coming back. He made a choice, served the consequence, and is moving on.
Unfortunately that’s the new process.. Take PEDs and when your caught just admit to it and then all is forgiven! Forget that.. Make the 1st offense a yr and the 2nd banishment.. Some will still use, only because they care more about that big paid day than working hard to play the game right.
I would agree with the first offense being for 1 year and second being for life. I would also add this to the punishment: Reduction in salary to veterans minimum for length of contract. This would counteract players that sign big contracts and then test positive for PED’s.
The problem is that he also signed a big contract. It seems that players may be juicing just so that they can get the money and run. So they get caught. The 80 game ban doesn’t negate the entire contract. Steroids can even help the mediocre player since baseball is a game of inches. Players who are just a tiny bit behind the fastball suddenly have the strength and bat speed to catch up and make decent major league players. Pitchers who are a bit slow with the fastball suddenly gain a couple of MPH which makes all the difference. And we all know what happens when sure fire Hall of Famers juice — they suddenly become greater than Babe Ruth. This is why juicing is so dangerous for the game and why it should be banned. There are no excuses.
Trade Gordon t
These guys never truly own up to their crimes. Their so called apologies are very vague and often lay blame on their trainers, technicians or the “supplement” itself. I agree that stiffer penalties are needed. As it stands now, it pays to cheat. You have to feel for the guys that played clean their whole careers and never received a big pay day. It’s become laughable.