You could say it started with Matt Manning.
Four years ago, in the Detroit Tigers’ first draft under general manager Al Avila, the team selected the raw right-hander with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2016 MLB draft.
You could say it started in the decade before, when the Tigers saw first-hand what kind of dollars elite starting pitchers were going for on the free agent market – in 2013, they signed Justin Verlander to a $140 million extension and two years later, watched Max Scherzer walk away to Washington for a then-record $210 million.