Tate, a San Diego Padres prospect, received the suspension following his second positive drug test.
The commissioner's office announced the penalty Tuesday. Tate will be given credit for 25 games already served while undergoing counseling for substance abuse. The rest of the suspension begins immediately.
The third overall pick in the 2009 Major League Baseball draft, Tate is on the roster at Class A Eugene and also has played this season at Class A Fort Wayne. He is batting a combined .299 with seven RBIs and seven stolen bases in 17 games.
In close to two years of playing professional baseball, Tate continues to meander down a rather rocky road, though not every obstacle has been avoidable. The winter following his selection by the Padres, which included a $6.25 million bonus, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound outfielder suffered a concussion and broken jaw from an ATV accident. Shoulder and thumb injuries last spring ensued before a stomach virus last summer quelled the progress he had been making with the Padres' Arizona Summer League team.
Tate seemed to be finally finding his footing last fall when he earned Most Valuable Player honors ahead of other top Padres prospects at the team's 25-day instructional program in Arizona. Tate hit .435 with one home run and five RBIs in seven games.
As his numbers this season suggest, Tate did not look to be letting up but the path to the majors has found another deterrent.
At one point last year, Baseball America had projected Tate to be the Padres' starting center fielder by 2013, but without a full season sans incident under his belt, the former Purple Hurricanes' dynamo appears to be nearing a fork in his road to stardom.
"It's obviously disappointing. He's a very talented player, but he's only had 180-something plate appearances since the draft in '09," Padres General Manager Jed Hoyer told CBSSports.com's Scott Miller. "We still have a lot of hopes for him. He has to get his act together and get on the field."
"To his credit, he's worked very hard," Hoyer continued. "We're hopeful that this is a wakeup call to him and a catalyst to get his career back on track."
The Padres have yet to give up hope on Tate, a point reiterated by Hoyer.
"We're very far from that point. We control his rights for a long time," Hoyer said. "For a lot of reasons, his performance inspires a lot of hope."
-- Information from The Associated Press was used in this article.