It would be difficult for a team in the week leading up to baseball's non-waiver trade deadline to make a more notable addition than a reigning batting and stolen-base champion.
The Marlins will do that, without having to make a trade, when Dee Gordon returns Thursday from an 80-game suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing substances.
While indicating that Gordon won't necessarily be playing every day, manager Don Mattingly left no doubt that he will be back in the leadoff spot for the first of four games against the Cardinals at Marlins Park.
"It will be nice to get Dee back and get that guy that you know you have that continuity in your lineup. I kind of like that," Mattingly said.
The Marlins will certainly welcome the speed element and base-stealing ability that Gordon will restore to the lineup. They rank 12th in the National League with 33 steals, six of them by Gordon before his suspension; he led the league with 58 last season.
Curiously, the variety of players who have occupied the leadoff spot in Gordon's absence have done a better job of reaching base, combining for a .389 on-base percentage that ranks second in the NL to the season-long mark of .392 by Cardinals leadoff hitters.
That cast of stand-ins, including J.T. Realmuto, Ichiro Suzuki, Derek Dietrich, Adeiny Hechavarria and Miguel Rojas, has a composite .317 batting average in the No. 1 spot in the order.
Gordon was batting .266 with a .289 on-base percentage in 21 games. Even last year, when he led the NL with a .333 average, his OBP was only .359, due to his rarely drawing walks.
"He could be even more of a lightning rod for us," Mattingly said of Gordon. "Our issue isn't getting on base, it's scoring runs."
Mattingly said his choice of leadoff hitters has depended on various elements of the lineup on a given day. Compensating for the absence of first baseman Justin Bour, out with an ankle injury since July 2, has been a factor.
"More than anything it's just the balance of our lineup. We don't have the true [leadoff] guy right now," Mattingly said.
"Since Dee's been gone it's just been the best mixture of guys. When we had [Bour] in the order, I like Dietrich up there. ... When [Bour] is out of the lineup, then I need a lefty to balance out the back side, and [Realmuto] kind of gets the leadoff spot. Sometimes it's [Hechavarria]."
With Dietrich, the primary fill-in at second base, slumping with a .098 average (4-for-41) since the All-Star break, Mattingly said, "It feels like Dee is getting back at the perfect time."
Along with fitting Gordon back into the lineup is the matter of melding him into a team that went 45-35 in his absence.
"He will be welcomed back into the clubhouse," Marlins president David Samson said Wednesday. "It's important that Dee asks for that forgiveness, which he has. He'll receive that, and he's got to work and continue to work to get himself back in with his teammates and back in with the fans. And back in with my son, right? One child at a time."
