Cashman’s lips are far looser, and although he is easygoing, he has a direct manner — he once suggested, using an expletive, that Alex Rodriguez shut up, and he publicly stood up to Derek Jeter’s contract demands. He endured a messy, public divorce, and his reading tastes toggle between biographies of titans of sports and industry and paperback thrillers, the latest being “Flesh and Blood,” by Patricia Cornwell. His guilty listening pleasure, he said, is MLB Radio.

The common ground shared by Girardi and Cashman is a small parcel — a taste for Italian food and their jobs.

While the Yankees have not won a playoff game since 2012 — and have not won the World Series since 2009 — Cashman and Girardi have managed an admirable degree of consistency. The team’s .570 winning percentage since the start of the 2009 season is the best in baseball, and the Yankees have remained competitive as they have transitioned to life after Jeter and other big stars — albeit with the help of a payroll in the $200 million range.

In all sports, there is inherent tension in the relationship between the manager and the general manager, and if a team does not win, its general manager can point the finger at the manager: His decision making is poor. The manager can point the finger at the general manager, too: The players are not good enough.

In baseball, that dynamic has changed considerably in the last decade as front offices, largely through the use of analytics, have exerted greater influence on lineups, bullpen use and other strategies — areas that were once solely the manager’s realm.

For the Yankees, the conflict may be further reduced because Cashman’s and Girardi’s contracts are essentially tied together — both are set to expire after the 2017 season. Cashman, 48, and Girardi, 51, also cite two pillars in their relationship: candid dialogue (so that problems do not fester) and a willingness to embrace new ideas.