Flashback to late July, two seasons ago.

The Kansas City Royals, two years removed from their 2015 World Series championship and fighting to keep their window of contention open for a couple months longer, arrive at Comerica Park for a three-game series.

They are 1½ games behind the Cleveland Indians for the American League Central division lead. The Detroit Tigers, gasping for their last breaths of perennial contention, are 6 ½ games back.

They see the writing on the wall: Free agent-to-be J.D. Martinez was shipped to the Arizona Diamondbacks two weeks earlier and more trades are likely to come in the final week before the trade deadline. They have veteran players but no leadership, a $200 million payroll that is seriously underachieving, and things are about to change, quickly.

But maybe, if they win this series, and then keep winning ... oh but they didn’t.

The Tigers were blasted by the Royals in that 2017 series, swept by a total score of 23-8, embarrassed by right-handed reliever Bruce Rondon again late in a blowout game, and exposed as a team that was strong only on paper. So many veterans, so little mental toughness.

Two years later, and another realization hit at Comerica Park this weekend: The Tigers are behind the Royals in the rebuilding process.

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With every Jorge Soler and Hunter Dozier home run — they combined for eight in the four-game series, with Kansas City totaling 12 — the point was hammered home even more.

“They’ve got that power where they make that park look small,” Royals manager Ned Yost said after Sunday afternoon’s 10-2 win over the Tigers. “It just goes to show you that you can look at your record all you want, but we got a couple of guys that are going to be mainstays in this lineup.

“I mean, middle-of-the-order bats when we get to the point where we can contend.”

The Royals (43-76) aren’t at that point yet. But in looking at their pieces — a strong position-player core which includes the best player in baseball nobody talks about in second baseman Whit Merrifield, a legitimate power hitter in Soler and up-and-coming players like Dozier and the injured Adalberto Mondesi — it’s easy to see the disparity in the two rebuilding processes.

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Because of that monstrous payroll, the Tigers (35-80) have dealt with different challenges than the Royals, a team that defined "small-market" but hit it big in developing a championship core of players in catcher Salvador Perez, first baseman Eric Hosmer, third baseman Mike Moustakas and center fielder Lorenzo Cain. Other key contributors — like left fielder Alex Gordon and shortstop Alcides Escobar — played big factors in that 2015 title.

But two years into the Tigers’ rebuilding process, the Tigers are still looking for bats of the current Royals' caliber. The organization’s best bets are infielder Isaac Paredes, a 20-year-old at Double-A Erie, and center fielder Riley Greene, an 18-year-old at Class A West Michigan.

Soler was acquired from the Chicago Cubs in a 2016 trade for closer Wade Davis; Dozier was taken No. 8 overall by K.C. in the 2013 draft. Mondesi, who might be their most dynamic player and is currently out with a shoulder injury, was signed as an amateur free agent the day he turned 16 in 2011. Perez, the veteran who underwent right elbow ligament reconstruction surgery in March and should return next season, also signed as a 16-year-old, back in 2006this past spring.

Kansas City, of course, is one of the models of a successful rebuild, along with the Cubs and the Houston Astros. But the biggest difference is those teams built through position players. The Tigers — who boast one of baseball’s best collection of pitching prospects — are going the other way.

For all the injury risks that come with it, pitching — especially front-line starting pitching — is the most valuable commodity in baseball.

Asked about the difficulties of going through a rebuilding process, Yost said, “The difficult thing is with the fans and the GM not having the patience to allow it to develop. That’s where you get in trouble. You have to have the patience to allow it to develop.

“Yeah, you’re going to lose games, but you continue to develop players at the big league level until your pitching — and you guys have pitching, like we have pitching in the middle levels of your organization — and when they get here and get themselves established, you guys are going to be contenders, just like we’re going to be contenders.

“We’re going to contend against each other when that young crop of pitchers that you have, that young crop of pitchers that we have get here and establish themselves. It’s going to be fun to watch.”

But that’s the thing: Not only do the Royals have bats like Soler and Dozier developing into impact hitters — and Merrifield, who is a superstar on a team-friendly contract with three years of control remaining (though he'll turn 31 before next season) — they also spent five early picks in last year’s MLB draft on college pitching.

Those pitchers — including the Florida righty duo of Brady Singer and Jackson Cowart — are not as highly-regarded as the Tigers’ top arms in righties Casey Mize and Matt Manning, but they could be in the majors just as quickly.

And when they do, Kansas City will not need to place the pressure of their entire rebuild on their shoulders, not with a starting lineup that should age well into the near future.

Soler and Dozier are both 27 years old, entering their primes. Mondesi Is 24 and shortstop Bobby Witt, Jr. — the team’s No. 2 overall pick out of high school in June — should progress rapidly through their system.

The Royals do not appear likely to spend as the Tigers have in the past, though it remains unknown how much president and CEO Christopher Ilitch will open up his pocketbook when the time comes. And when it does — most optimistically two years from now, more likely in four years — the Tigers will be dealing with a different AL Central.

The Minnesota Twins have fought the system with sage free agent signings, and have multiple impact players in their farm system. The Chicago White Sox continue to be a team on the precipice of success, though with each passing year, doubt creeps in.

And the Royals, as evident with every one of those 12 booming home runs this weekend from big bats the Tigers are missing, stand ahead of them in the rebuilding process, too.

Contact Anthony Fenech at afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.