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 apologize for Gordon and his apparent PED use. He'll have to deal with that for rest of his career, starting with when he comes back from his suspension July 28, in the Marlins' 102nd game. Since Gordon is fresh off signing a five-year, $50 million extension that covers him through 2020, I expect few will weep for him. Because we don't know -- yet, if indeed we ever will -- when he started using them, we can't usefully speculate about their impact on his performance. Was it just this season? Or did it start in 2015 as part of push for big money in Miami? Or in 2014, when he had his first full productive season with the Dodgers? From the outside, it looks bad. Inside the organization, it probably feels worse.

Unless or until Gordon comes clean about that, we can't really know, and unless or until he comes back and plays a productive part for the Marlins going forward, neither do they. Much like other caught PED users, he'll have to come back and silence critics. It isn't quite like the spectacle Ryan Braun of the Brewers put baseball through, but the legacy -- of the long-term deal and the long-term questions -- can be seen as similar, especially for a smaller-market club.

What isn't similar is the point I made up front. Gordon's suspension is a reminder that PEDs aren't just about players trying to hit homers. Gordon has always been a speed and skills player, dead ball era-earnest in the damage he's supposed to do on the basepaths as opposed to putting baseballs over the fence. He's a reminder that PEDs are as much the province of sprinters and cyclists as Bash Brothers and ballplayers.

Finally, there's the concern about what this means for the Marlins. Team president David Samson was generous, saying, "We expect him to be back 80 games from now, and he will be welcomed back to this organization. ... We are positive that in the interim period we expect him and are positive he will do whatever is necessary to make it up to his teammates, to our fans and to this organization."

In the meantime, Marlins manager Don Mattingly will have to patch up the lineup with Derek Dietrich and Miguel Rojas covering for Gordon at second base. That might work well enough as an offense-defense platoon, since Dietrich has produced a .751 career OPS and .191 isolated slugging rate from the left side of the plate in more than 700 big-league plate appearances, and Rojas has the glove to carry either middle infield slot on defense. For alternatives, Triple-A New Orleans only offers journeymen such as Robert Andino and Don Kelly.

None of them might be an antidote for the disappointment Gordon's suspension creates and deserves. But just as MLB gets to celebrate the benefits of its commitment to clean up the game, it also has to live with the heartbreak of actually catching and punishing its own in doing so.

Christina Kahrl writes about MLB for ESPN. You can follow her on Twitter.