In 2014, excellent CBS Sports baseball writer Dayn Perry asked, “Is the age of the 100-win team over?” It was a legitimate question. There hadn’t been a single 100-win team in three years, and from 2006-14, there were only three 100-win teams: the 2008 Angels, the ‘09 Yankees and the ‘11 Phillies. But Perry’s question was ill-timed, because the very next season, the 100-win team barrage began.

In 2015, there was one 100-win team, the St. Louis Cardinals, the year when there were three teams in the NL Central with 97 wins or more. In ‘16, the Cubs had their magical season, winning 103 games, the most wins in a season -- tied with the 2002 A’s, the ‘02 Yankees and ‘09 Yankees -- since the Mariners’ record-setting season in ‘01.

And then it snowballed.

In 2017: three 100-win teams, the Dodgers (104 wins), the Indians (102 wins) and the Astros (101).

In 2018: three 100-win teams, the Red Sox (108 wins), the Astros (103) and the Yankees (100).

In the history of baseball, we’ve had seven seasons in which there have been three 100-win teams, and two of them have been the last two years. There has never been a season with four 100-win teams, though the last seasons have been close: The Nationals topped out at 97 in 2017, and the A’s had 97 last year. We are truly in the Golden Age of 100-win seasons.

The reasons for this are apparent when you look around baseball. With more and more teams thinking long-term (often at the expense of the present), there are more and more opportunities for the top-tier teams to rack up wins. It is not a coincidence that has 100-win seasons have gone up, 100-loss seasons have increased as well. From 2014-17, there was only one 100-loss team, the ‘16 Twins. But there were three of them last year: the Orioles (115 losses), the Royals (104) and the White Sox (100). (There has in fact been one season with four 100-loss teams: 2002, with the Tigers, Royals, Brewers and then Devil Rays scraping that particular bottom).

Which brings us, of course, to this season. With just less than two months left in the year, there are three teams on pace to win 100 games, making it three years in a row with three teams (which has never happened) … and a fourth team with a legitimate opportunity to break that record.

Your projected 100-win teams:

Dodgers (on pace for 105 wins)
Astros (103)
Yankees (103)

And right behind them are the Twins, who were on pace for a 100-win season a week ago but have fallen just under now at a mere 99. For what it’s worth, the Braves are right there as well, on pace for 96. We’ve never had four, but it’s not impossible that we could have five. Here the records each team needs to hit down the stretch to reach 100:

Dodgers: 28-23
Astros: 30-22
Yankees: 32-23
Twins: 34-20
Braves: 35-17

One of the many reasons this Trade Deadline was thought by many to be less thrilling than hoped -- or at least one of the reasons some teams like the Dodgers, Yankees and Cardinals nearly sat the Deadline out entirely -- is that there were so many teams in the middle, not fantastic but not terrible, able to talk themselves into fighting a seemingly endless list of fellow contenders for a Wild Card spot. Not only weren’t there as many clear sellers as there are in years past, there weren’t as many obvious buyers, either.

That’s because there are so many teams in the middle, and the teams at the extremes are distancing themselves in opposite directions. There’s a real possibility that there will be more 100-win teams and more 100-loss teams than there have ever been in baseball history this season. It is baseball income equality made flesh. There are the haves, the definite have-nots … and the rest of baseball is in that mushy middle. This has happened for three consecutive seasons now. There is little reason to think it will be stopping anytime soon.