DETROIT — For so long before his warp-speed rise to one of baseball’s budding front-line forces, Troy Melton needed to slow things down.He was never supposed to be here. Not really. Melton, as you might have heard, was primarily a position player at Canyon High in Anaheim. Perfect Game once ranked him as the No. 32 catcher in California.It was the summer after his junior year when, on a whim, the sandy-blond teenager got invited to a pitching showcase at Long Beach State. The school was a short drive up the freeway from Melton’s home. He had a connection, so he didn’t have to pay to enter the showcase. It became one of those happenstance days that changed everything.For most of that session, Melton squatted behind the plate, sweating and catching bullpens for pitchers who had more experience and more college offers.Finally, toward the end of the day, a coach told Melton to take off his gear and get ready to throw. Melton obliged. He was tall but skinny, a frame better suited for standing on the mound than squatting behind the plate. He had an athletic delivery and quick arm action.Sam Peraza, then the pitching coach at San Diego State, took note. In a way, he was there hoping he’d find someone like Troy Melton.“We were always searching for arms, and quite frankly, we’d walk them on,” Peraza said.Melton topped out at 88 mph that day. He had no real feel for secondary pitches. But he was something to dream on.Soon, Melton was on SDSU’s campus, touring the place and falling in love. The coaches told him he would have to walk on. Melton at that point had only one other scholarship offer. It was from Point Loma Nazarene, a Division II school in San Diego with a ballpark right off the Pacific Ocean. The Sea Lions wanted him as a pitcher and a catcher.Melton instead chose San Diego State. He once joked it was probably the wrong choice — it would have been more responsible to take the scholarship money and go the Division II route. But in the back of Melton’s mind, he wondered if something bigger might be in store.Now, Melton has become a key member of the Detroit Tigers’ present and a captivating part of their future. He carried a 1.79 ERA through his first 17 major-league starts, a feat no one has matched since Steve Rogers in 1973.Since returning from an injury on May 24, Melton has a 1.71 ERA. The only MLB starter in that time with a better mark over at least 70 innings is Jacob Misiorowski.Not bad for the 32nd-best catcher in California.“Man,” Peraza says now. “We caught lightning in a bottle.”Troy Melton has four pitches with Stuff+ grades of 100 or better. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)It all happened so fast. Melton stepped on the SDSU campus as a freshman still learning to pitch.After hardly throwing off the mound as a junior, Melton carried a 2.34 ERA his senior year at Canyon High. But if we’re being real, he wasn’t ready for the Division I level.“You could see the talent all the time,” Peraza said. “But it was a struggle early.”Melton suffered a lat injury his freshman year and pitched in only four games. He gained about 20 pounds in his first year on campus, spending as much time in the cafeteria as his meal plan would allow.Melton pitched only 22 1/3 innings with a 3.22 ERA as a sophomore because of the COVID shutdown.Peraza was there helping, guiding, mentoring. Progress came in fits and starts. He clung to signs of growth, like an outing against Coastal Carolina in which Melton threw five scoreless innings.“It was his second year, the COVID year, where I really felt like, ‘OK, this kid has a chance to be special,'” Peraza said.But Melton’s third season was a struggle. He was finally pitching on a regular workload for the first time. Despite a fastball that had shot up into the 90s, Melton had a 6.14 ERA. Something was missing.“I was up to 97,” Melton said. “I had a good breaking ball. I had a changeup. I should have been throwing a lot better than I was.”After Melton’s third year, Peraza left to take a job at Arizona State. San Diego State hired Shaun Cole, who had worked at Arizona and served as a player development coordinator for the San Diego Padres.