MLB has no elite teams. Here’s what’s holding each contender back.

Six weeks from now, the earliest rounds of MLB’s ultra-inclusive postseason will be underway, and all the levity and rancor of the regular season will feel less important by comparison. Teams that make the postseason will be remembered as playoff teams, even if they didn’t look that way all summer. The team that wins the World Series will make total sense in hindsight, the signs of coming glory far more obvious looking back than they were on some sticky night in late August.

The reality of this regular season is that it has clarified almost nothing as September approaches. It has been defined by a lack of juggernauts and therefore a level of parity that hasn’t existed in years.

Consider: It has been 10 years since MLB failed to produce a 100-win team (not including the pandemic season of 2020). Entering Thursday, no team is on pace for more than 96 wins, which would be the first time since 2007 with such a low win total. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers, with their MLB-best .594 winning percentage, are on pace to reach that number. And they, statistically the best team in baseball, are clinging to a four-game lead over two challengers in their division.

To the extent that any team is running away with a division, it is more because of the mediocrity of its competition than any particular dominance. The Milwaukee Brewers, for example, are taking advantage of the St. Louis Cardinals’ inability to hit and the Chicago Cubs’ and Cincinnati Reds’ inconsistencies in the National League Central. The second-biggest division lead belongs to the Philadelphia Phillies, whose seven-game advantage over the Atlanta Braves in the NL East feels precarious largely because they have been unable to expand upon it. The Phillies have played well under .500 since the all-star break.

Perhaps a buzz saw will still emerge. But the most credible contenders are flawed. Here’s a look at what is holding them back.

Los Angeles Dodgers (76-52)

Technically, the Dodgers are baseball’s best team, and that is not surprising. They entered this season with one of the more star-studded lineups in history after adding Shohei Ohtani to a core that already included Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. They signed Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto and traded for Tyler Glasnow to round out a rotation that didn’t look quite deep enough without them.

As it turns out, that rotation was not deep enough with them, either. Thanks in part to injuries to Betts, Max Muncy and others, the lineup has been top-heavy at times. But Betts and Muncy are back, and the offense seems likely to find more consistency as a result. Injuries to the rotation, however, have kept the Dodgers from separating from the pack. Glasnow, who had never thrown more than 120 innings in a season, made it to August before being sidelined with elbow discomfort and has yet to start throwing again. Yamamoto, who hit the injured list with right triceps tightness in June, is aiming for a mid-September return - though whether he will be able to regain elite form in the most pressurized games of his brief big league career remains to be seen.

Four Dodgers starters have required Tommy John surgery this year. Another, Dustin May, is out for the year with a flexor tendon injury and esophageal surgery. At this point, Los Angeles is relying on creaky lefty Clayton Kershaw, who returned from shoulder surgery this month. If the rotation does not heal around him, the Dodgers might not have enough pitching to push deep into October.

Philadelphia Phillies (74-52)

At times this spring and summer, the Phillies looked like the clear World Series favorites. They were 29 games over .500 in July and have led the NL East by as many as 10 games. Then they slowed.

Poor stretches from Bryce Harper (hitting .209 since he returned July 9 from a brief stint on the injured list) and Trea Turner certainly did not help. Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas have not chipped in enough as key parts of the Phillies’ outfield rotation. But Turner’s recent reemergence and the slow recovery of Nick Castellanos, among others, give reasons to believe the Phillies’ offense is still more than capable of conjuring its third annual autumn surge. And though some of Philadelphia’s veteran starters have flashed inconsistency, the combination of Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola at the top is still a formidable one - perhaps the most formidable in baseball. The main reason the Phillies are not dominating is that their stars have not been playing to their usual standards since the all-star break. That could change.

If it does, a familiar uncertainty remains: the bullpen. The Phillies traded for former Los Angeles Angels closer Carlos Estévez in the hopes of settling the back end of games, and he has been fine since the deal, blowing one save and nailing down two others with a 2.79 ERA. But Jose Alvarado looks to be in one of his shakier stretches, and young Orion Kerkering and even all-stars Matt Strahm and Jeff Hoffman have faltered to varying degrees since the break. The Phillies offloaded Seranthony Dominguez to the Baltimore Orioles for outfielder Austin Hays, pulling from a position of strength, only to see fellow relievers stumble somewhat in the weeks since. Much like their offensive colleagues, any number of them could return to form in time to help the Phillies regain momentum.

New York Yankees (75-53)

Aaron Judge has 48 homers and a 1.191 OPS. Juan Soto is having one of the best seasons of his stellar career, reaching a career high with his 36th homer Wednesday night. But the Yankees’ lineup has been consistently inconsistent otherwise, limiting their ability to sustain the dominance they flashed at the beginning of the season. Anthony Volpe lost his feel at the plate, with an OPS of .443 over the past two weeks. Alex Verdugo is hitting below his career norms, and Gleyber Torres is mired in the worst offensive season of an inconsistent offensive career. New York’s prize trade deadline acquisition, Jazz Chisholm Jr. provided a jolt, then went down with an injury.

Even so, a solid starting rotation has helped the Yankees keep pace with the Orioles at the top of the AL East. They have done enough, over and over, to carry leads late into games. But therein lies another problem, one not unique to them: the back end of the bullpen. Overall, New York’s relief corps has been solid, particularly this month. But closer Clay Holmes has faltered too regularly lately. His 10 blown saves lead the majors, though that he has blown two of his past six chances - at a time when every win would help the Yankees gain ground on the inconsistent Orioles - is the cause for more imminent concern. If the offense hands a lead to the bullpen, it needs to keep it, and the Yankees’ ability to make a run will depend, in part, on Holmes.

Baltimore Orioles (74-54)

The Orioles’ rotation has been decimated by injuries, and that has hurt their chances. They are without Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez and, most recently, trade deadline acquisition Zach Eflin, whom they placed on the injured list this week with a shoulder issue. Ace Corbin Burnes has also fallen off in the second half and is pitching to a 9.00 ERA in August entering his scheduled start Thursday. Even so, the biggest barrier the Orioles are facing is not pitching early in games but rather what happens later.

The Orioles entered the trade deadline knowing closer Craig Kimbrel was not at his best. They did not replace him. As a result, they have continued to rely on Kimbrel in big spots only to watch the veteran continue to struggle. In 15⅓ innings since the start of July, Kimbrel has allowed 12 earned runs, 12 walks and five homers. The man the Orioles counted on to close when Kimbrel could not, Yennier Cano, is allowing more base runners this season than he did during his 2023 breakout. He has been solid but not untouchable. And while Dominguez has been a helpful addition, relatively unfamiliar arms such as those belonging to Burch Smith and Colin Selby will be needed in some of the Orioles’ biggest innings of the season. Only three teams have higher reliever ERAs in the second half than the Orioles’ 5.30. Their dominant closer, Félix Bautista, out since last year after undergoing elbow surgery, is throwing off a mound again. They could use him.

Cleveland Guardians (73-54)

The Guardians have been one of the winningest teams in baseball all season, which has qualified as a surprise. Instead of relying on the kind of steady starting pitching that has kept their low-budget offense in games in recent years, the Guardians have relied more on a potent offense, one that eschewed a wholly contact-first approach for a more power-hungry one and saw positive results follow. But that offense has struggled since July and has the sixth-lowest OPS in baseball since the start of August. The man they acquired at the trade deadline to offer an offensive jolt, Lane Thomas, is hitting just .119 since the deal. He and others in that lineup will have to rediscover their early-season form for the Guardians to finish this season the way they started it. And they better hurry: This year, the gap between the top teams and their pursuers is smaller than ever, and the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins were both just 2½ games behind the Guardians in the AL Central at the start of Thursday’s schedule.