Blue Jays' Montero suspended 50 games

Jesus Montero played 125 Minor League games last season for the first time since 2008. He won't be matching that number in 2017.

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball suspended the Blue Jays farmhand 50 games on Thursday after he tested positive for dimethylbutylamine, or DMBA, an illegal stimulant in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. The ban is effective at the beginning of next season.

Montero, 26, has bounced between the Minors and the Majors for three straight seasons before playing solely for Triple-A Buffalo last season, where he batted .317/.347/.438 with 11 home runs and 60 RBIs for the Bisons.

A career .311 hitter in the Minors, the 6-foot-3, 235-pound Venezuelan owns a Major League slash line of .253/.295/.398 with 28 homers and 104 RBIs in 226 games.

DMBA is a common ingredient in over-the-counter dietary supplements, used to avoid laws that prohibit the use of methylhexanamine, which is also illegal under the league's drug prevention and treatment program.

Major League Baseball has handed out 83 suspensions to 82 players this year for violations of the Minor League drug program.