Dee Gordon returns from his suspension on Thursday, and Anna McDonald wonders how the Marlins work him back into the lineup:

On Thursday, Gordon will be reinstated. But there’s a measure of uncertainty that surrounds his return and raises several questions for the Marlins: How will they use Gordon without really knowing what he will bring to the table after being out for 80 games? How will Gordon fit into the tight fabric of a team that is already well developed?

By getting the reigning NL batting champion and the two-time reigning stolen-base king back into the fold, the Marlins are in a position to be better in the season’s final two months. The first challenge they face is to figure out how to weave Gordon back into playing every-day baseball.

“I can’t tell you that I have an ironclad plan of how we’re going to do it,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said in St. Louis. “It will be more of a blend than just throwing him into the fire. So, that’s kind of the way we’re talking about it.”

There’s an assumption here that Gordon will be better than the current second baseman, Derek Dietrich. Dietrich did a great job this season of getting on base, although he slumped recently. Since Gordon was taking PEDs, why should we believe his 2015 performance was real? Gordon won’t be able to play in the post-season, so why take playing time away from the person who would need to hold down second base in the playoffs? Apart from Dietrich getting hurt, or his 47 PA slump continuing for a long time, there is no good reason to play Gordon except to rest other infielders. I would not be surprised if the Marlins traded him by Monday.

Gordon did offer an apology, although if he indeed didn’t know he took the substance, I don’t know why he needed to apologize.