Harper disappointed in Gordon but doesn't want batting title

ST. LOUIS - Bryce Harper said Dee Gordon's 80-game suspension after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs is "definitely a disappointment," but the Nationals star insisted he shouldn't now be considered the reining NL batting champ because of Gordon's actions.

Harper lost the batting title to Gordon on the final day of the 2015 season, ultimately falling short by three percentage points. He blames his own struggles down the stretch - he hit .162 over his final 11 games, causing his batting average to plummet from .343 to .330 - for the end result, not Gordon's actions.

"I lost the batting title. I lost it completely," Harper said this afternoon before the Nationals' series opener at Busch Stadium. "I was hitting like .345 with three weeks left or so. I completely lost it. It was nothing to do with that. You've still got to hit the baseball. You've still got to perform. And he did that. I completely lost the batting title last year, so that's all behind us."

Harper, like most around the sport, was surprised and upset to learn the news early this morning that Gordon tested positive for exogenous Testosterone and Clostebol, substances banned by Major League Baseball. The Marlins second baseman, a popular player with teammates and opponents alike, will have to sit out 80 games without pay.

"It's definitely a disappointment," Harper said. "He's one of the best second basemen in the game, a big talent, a lot of fun to watch. It's just disappointment, something you don't want to see. Not good for the sport, not good for baseball. But he's still one of the best players in the game and I've still got a lot of respect for him. But it's definitely something that's just tough."

Gordon's suspension, along with a similar one recently handed down to Blue Jays first baseman Chris Colabello, has once again raised the subject in baseball about potential changes to a drug testing program that has instituted harsher penalties several times over the years and remains the strictest PED system in American professional sports.

If a player like Gordon (who will end up sacrificing less than 2 percent of the $50 million contract he signed over the winter) is willing to risk getting caught, is there enough disincentive currently for ballplayers not to take PEDs?

"I think as players and as a union, we'll speak about that," Harper said. "But I think we can all stay together and do what we need to do to communicate about that. (Union chief) Tony Clark's great about that. The union's great about that. And I'm sure we'll have meetings about that and we'll talk about it when we need to."

Nationals manager Dusty Baker, whose career has overlapped the complete span of the so-called "Steroids Era" from its outset to its peak to its apparent decline, doesn't know what should be done. But he knows how difficult this challenge is, not only for eradicating baseball of PEDs but for explaining to the next generation of players why this keeps happening.

"It's a sad day for me and for a lot of people that know Dee," Baker said. "I had my son ask me one time a few years ago - when players were getting busted every day - he asked me: 'Dad, is there anybody that's not doing it?' And I didn't really know what to say. It's a sad day for us all."