I think this one is a lot closer than others may think (caveat, unless you believe Gordon's great 2015 was fully PED fueled, and not a potential breakout)
Gordon is 28, Desmond is 31
Gordon plays 2B, and is 2 years removed from a .333 season with 58 steals - and will hit atop the lineup probably all year long. Granted he's only a 3 category guy, but if he hits > .310 again and steals 50+ again those are pretty big categories.
Desmond is 2 years removed from a .233 season with 19 homers and 13 sb's. .233 is a killer, and the 19 homers and 13 sb's are okay for a SS or MI guy....Desmond is not going to be MI eligible. In fact, his role and place in the lineup at this writing is still very much in the air. Rox have 4 OF's (Blackmon, Gonzalez, Dahl and Parra) so he's more than likely going to be a 1B (well, until Gonzalez eventually gets hurt). And if the Rockies had any conviction in Desmond being a viable 1B, they may not invited Mark Reynolds to camp.
Now, of course I did cherry pick the stats a bit here, but if you ask me to pick between an OF/1B player that I've got penciled in for a .250, 22 home run, 75 rbi season vs a 2B who I have at .310 with 50 steals, and I already have Bryant Machado and Trout on my team, I may be quite tempted to fill in my IF with Gordon and then grab some out of favor OF'ers who should be quite plentiful.
The key to a sucessful roto campaign is to build stats, not necessarily build a team. I know that sounds counterintuitive and did not come out right, but the fact is steals are not nearly as plentiful as Homers/RBI's, and if you can get a guy at 2B that fills that role, you don't need to worry about rostering the likes of JArrod Dyson, Rajah Davis, Travis Jankowski et al and have them eat a valuable roster spot hoping they get 4-5 starts per week and steal a few bases.