The 2024 World Series champion Dodgers, in many ways, are a classic, big-market and high-dollar team. After all, the franchise boasts MLB’s top attendance, one of its largest local media-rights deals operating in the No. 2 U.S. market, the game’s highest-paid player in Shohei Ohtani, and the No. 5 player payroll this year.

But club officials are crediting much of their latest title—the Dodgers’ first in a full season since 1988—to still thinking and operating much like an underdog.

After topping the Yankees in a five-game series that was much more taut than that margin would suggest, key parts of the Dodgers’ success included looking beyond just the record-setting $700 million Ohtani signing last offseason. While that certainly was the team’s headline going into this season, the Dodgers then pursued other numerous player acquisitions and continued to scrap their way to an MLB-leading, 98-win season, even while grappling with injuries and numerous other setbacks.

Once in the World Series, the team then relied heavily on nearly every player on its active roster, including emptying its bullpen across Games 4 and 5.

“Every good organization is like that, and I think we are one,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said on the Yankee Stadium field, moments after accepting the Commissioner’s Trophy. “It’s not just 26 people [on the active roster], it’s not just the 40-man roster. It’s about everybody throughout the organization. It’s also about the people you add during the year, and we added plenty of significant, big-time contributors, and we’re very proud of that. … We are opportunistic. That’s how we are.”