The Dodgers are off to the World Series for the second year in a row after they completed a sweep of the Brewers in the National League Championship Series Friday thanks to Shohei Ohtani's historic performance.

Before the 2024 season, the two-way superstar signed a monster 10-year, $700 million contract to join the Dodgers, which was the biggest contract in Major League Baseball history until Juan Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets last offseason. L.A.'s $350 million payroll for this season leads the MLB, highlighted by big deals for their star core of Mookie Betts, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Freddie Freeman.

They made another star acquisition over the offseason, winning the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes to land the Japanese pitcher who has had an incredible postseason out of the bullpen. Clearly, the Dodgers aren't afraid to spend to remain atop baseball's mountaintop. Even though their massive spending brings out plenty of critics, manager Dave Roberts couldn't seem to care less, as he perfectly noted while celebrating their NLCS victory Friday evening.

"I'll tell you before this season started, they said the Dodgers are ruining baseball," Roberts said into the microphone on the podium. "Let's get four more wins and really ruin baseball, let's go."

The defending champions now await the winner of the ALCS between the Mariners and Blue Jays in the World Series. We'll see if either smaller market team is able to take down the big spenders, which is undoubtedly a tall task with Ohtani putting up performances never seen before. The Dodgers have made it to the World Series in five of the past nine years, now in only their second year of Ohtani in Dodger blue.

A dynasty could be budding and the franchise will continue to do whatever it takes to remain as baseball's standard.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Dave Roberts Embraces Dodgers' Massive Spending With Savage Line After NLCS Win.