BALTIMORE -- All-Star closer Zach Britton doesn’t have any sympathy for Dee Gordon. At the same time, he doesn’t blame him either.
“If you stay within the range of NSF certified products, you're pretty safe,” said Britton, who’s the Baltimore Orioles assistant player representative, a day after Gordon was suspended 80 games for violating baseball’s PED policy. Gordon is the second player in the last week to be suspended, joining Toronto first baseman Chris Colabello, who also received an 80-game ban. “If you’re going to go outside of that, you run the risk of failing a drug test, so that's on you. We all understand. We all know the rules.”
They also all know the potential reward.
“There's so much money getting thrown around in the game,” said Britton, whose teammate Chris Davis signed a $161 million deal this winter, two years removed from a 25-game suspension of his own. “If you can get an edge, we're talking millions and millions of dollars. So it's not like you can blame them. Money's the root of all evil.”
In Gordon’s case, he led the National League in hitting last season, just barely edging out Bryce Harper, then capitalized by signing a five-year, $50 million deal with the Marlins in January. Even though Gordon won’t get paid during his suspension, those 80 games only represent about 10 percent of his contract. When he returns, the paychecks will kick in again.
Britton, for one, is in favor of stricter penalties that would serve as a greater deterrent.
“There are players who've been suspended, and they’ve come back and signed multi-year deals for a lot of money. Some players see that and think that if they get in trouble, it'll still be worth it in the end. So I would say the penalty should be stiffer to deter players from seeking the big payday. Whether or not that's increasing it to 162 games right off the bat, who knows? But something definitely needs to be done.”
If something does get done, it’s likely to be sooner rather than later, as the current collective bargaining agreement between the league and the Players Association -- which calls for an 80-game suspension for the first offense, 162 games for a second violation, and a lifetime ban for the third -- is set to expire after the 2016 season.
“We'll see how far the union and players are willing to sacrifice,” Britton said. “It should be an interesting topic.”
