After middling years, the Red Sox and Cardinals are hopeful they can turn things

FORT MYERS, Fla. — They are Tiffany brands of Major League Baseball, famous for exacting standards of quality. The Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals are draped in historical significance, much of it shared: The Kid vs. The Man in 1946, Yaz vs. Gibby in 1967, Papi vs. Pujols in 2004.

Ten years ago they were basking in the afterglow of another World Series matchup, won by the Red Sox in six games. Now they are coming off the first season in major league history in which both franchises finished in last place.

You couldn’t tell on Tuesday when the teams met at JetBlue Park — everyone’s happy in spring training — but fans of both teams are restless.

That’s a polite way of putting it, anyway.

“You can’t complain when people are mad that we didn’t meet their expectations when ours are the same or higher,” said Michael Girsch, the Cardinals’ general manager, during batting practice before an 8-6 Cardinals victory.

“There’s other organizations that don’t expect to win, and neither do their fans. That’s not fun. It’s one thing if it’s like for a year or two while they’re building towards something, but there are other (teams) where it becomes sort of the baseline. That’s not what the Cardinals are, right? That’s not what anybody in the organization wants it to look like.”

Girsch has worked almost two decades for the Cardinals; John Mozeliak, the president of baseball operations, has worked nearly three. For Boston recently, the lead baseball executive job has come with an expiration date.

As Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe noted last year, the last three to hold it had strikingly similar lengths of service: Ben Cherington (1,393 days), Dave Dombrowski (1,493 days) and Chaim Bloom (1,417 days). That timeline would give the new general manager, Craig Breslow, three to four years to implement a turnaround.

With the exception of his “sabbatical” after the 2005 season, Theo Epstein ran baseball ops for the Red Sox from 2002-11.

Since then:

Ben Cherington got 1,393 days, Dave Dombrowski got 1,493 days and Chaim Bloom got 1,417 days. All roughly 3.8 years.

— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) September 14, 2023

Breslow, who had been the Chicago Cubs’ vice president of pitching, joined Boston in October as chief baseball officer. He grew up a Mets fan in Trumbull, Conn., but as a reliever for the 2013 champions, he has an intimate understanding of what makes the Red Sox special.

So while Breslow offered the usual checkpoints for his vision — a steady pipeline of homegrown talent, a premium on athleticism — he added something telling.

“Teams that have been successful here have household names,” Breslow said. “I think that’s an important part of this.”

As Breslow spoke on Tuesday morning, on a patio outside the home clubhouse, Jason Varitek fed a pitching machine firing short hops to catchers. Jim Rice sat on a chair nearby, taking in the morning rituals. Dwight Evans also roamed the grounds, in…