For Triston Casas, ball is always life.

Even when he’s on the 60-day injured list with torn cartilage in his ribs and still a ways away from even swinging a bat.

“No baseball progression yet,” he told the Herald on Sunday afternoon. “Living just became bearable.”

What’s bearable for a professional athlete, exactly?

“Breathing doesn’t hurt me anymore,” the first baseman explained. “If I try to get to the top of my breath, it’ll hurt a little bit, but getting out of bed hurts minimally now. Getting up off the floor if I have to go pick something up, doesn’t bother me as much. Putting on my shoes doesn’t hurt anymore. I’m feeling a lot better just getting around, but still a little bit away from swinging a bat.”

“We’re just starting to work in, like a little bit of exercise now, a little bit of workout, some different exercises with weights, and starting to incorporate some type of running progression as well,” he said of his current regimen. “I’m feeling good, but still a little bit more progress before I can start doing more baseball activities.”

In the meantime, Casas is keeping busy honing a unique skill.

“I’m working on picking up a baseball with my toes. That’s my next obstacle,” he said. “I can do a lacrosse ball pretty easy. The baseball is harder because it’s leather, so it’s not as grippy… the pinky (toe) would be a non-factor at that point, so then it’d just be the four, grip it and grab it up.”

It’s both unusual and not surprising for a player who made headlines for his unique pre-game rituals, which include shirtless sunbathing on the field and practicing swinging while holding a large plastic barrel during batting practice.

“I’m doing my best to navigate as best as I can by myself, because I do spend a lot of time by myself,” he said. “You get bored when you’re injured sometimes, so picking up baseballs is my new hobby, with my feet.”

Foot-ball aside, Casas is trying to maintain his routine as much as possible.

“I feel like I’ve been trying to stay on the same timing schedule, even though I may not be able to participate in everything, since we are in the middle of the season and since I am gonna come back for a substantial amount of time come midsummer, I want to stay on time with my scheduling,” he said. “Whether it’s times that I have to be at a meeting, or times that I eat or get in the cage, or come out to the field to get ground balls, I just try to be with the team as much as possible.”

Being around the team, however, brings its own challenges.

“It’s frustrating both ways,” Casas admitted. “If we’re doing well and we’re hitting, I want to be a part of it. If we’re, you know we don’t ever do bad, the other team does well and they do better than us. If the other team’s doing better than us then I want to feel like I can do something about it. So, it’s frustrating either way.”

Still, he’s going about his recovery with a positive mindset.

“I try to focus on what I can do and not so much on what I can’t,” he said. “There is a lot that I can do to occupy my time, so I’m trying to maximize all the little things that they have inside to help us get better. Just trying to stay as productive as I can.”

Casas has also found he’s still able to contribute in the dugout, but feels there’s an important boundary, which he tries to avoid overstepping.

“I’ve faced a lot of the guys now in the league after one time around last year, so if I can at least give somebody a hint for their first at-bat against a guy, I try to do that,” he said. “But I try to be as informative as I can but not too intrusive with my information. It’s tough when you’re not playing, to be able to make an impact, but I’m doing the best I can.”

In addition to the general itch to get back in the game, Casas is eager to finally play alongside Vaughn Grissom. The two infielders bonded immediately when they first met at the club’s annual Rookie Development Program and Winter Weekend in mid-January, but Grissom missed all of spring training with a groin strain, and Casas was already on the injured list when the second baseman made his Red Sox debut last weekend in Minnesota.

“Vaughn’s been a great addition, playing a solid second base. (Our relationship) is gonna be even better when we can play together,” Casas said with a smile. “That’s really when you create bonds with guys: on the field and when you’re going through it with them. It’s tough to be on the sideline and really have a say and stuff, because you don’t have a say in what’s going on in the game so it’s like an ‘easier said than done’ kind of thing.”

One thing he’s been able to appreciate is the chance to observe his teammates through a different lens. After watching Red Sox pitchers struggle in both the minors and majors over the last several years he’s thrilled by their collective performance this season and the overall improvement throughout the organization.

“Still leading baseball in ERA, that’s a real accomplishment for our pitchers,” he said. “I’m really happy for them. They put in a lot of work.”

“We weren’t sure how we were gonna stack up,” Casas admitted. “We’ve been battling through the injuries, but that just speaks to the amount of depth that we have in our system. Even to send a guy like Winckowski down, which hurt us because he’s a big part of our team, he can easily be one elite closers in the game if given the chance in the ninth inning with really any other team… the strength is the pitching right now.”

When Trevor Story’s season ended after eight games, the Red Sox reluctantly moved Ceddanne Rafaela, whom they’d signed to an extension thinking he’d be their everyday centerfielder, to shortstop, which he’d played in the early years of his minor league career. This, too, has been exciting for Casas to witness.

“Heck yeah,” he said of Rafaela’s infield work. “I had never played with him in the minor leagues, so I hadn’t seen him play shortstop before (his debut). He’s made some great plays, it’s just about him making the routine ones. We all know he has great range, and it shows all the way out in centerfield, so if he can just apply that. He’s got one of the best arms across the infield that I’ve ever seen. He’s gonna be an elite defensive shortstop.”

As for his own future, Casas is focused on health, not wealth.

“Nothing has transpired yet or progressed,” he said of the ongoing contract extension talks with the Red Sox. “I’m making more money than I ever thought I would playing this game, so the fact that they would be considering offering me that amount of money, it’s an honor, it’s great, but I’m not worried about the money right now.

“I’m very confident in my abilities. I think I’ll be here for a long time, and it doesn’t matter what the negotiations are at the moment. I’m focused on winning. I think this city embraces winners and up till now, I don’t think I’ve done anything to earn that kind of money. So I think I gotta prove a little bit more before I can demand something else. Until then, I just gotta keep controlling what I can control and take it one day at a time.”

During spring training, Casas described the club’s side of talks “nothing enticing.” Now, he’s leaving the details to his agents.

“My agents handle that for me, and I’ve told them not to relay anything to me. However they want to handle it is great with me,” he said. “They know my value better than I do. They’re the number-crunchers, the stat rats, they’re the ones who put a name to the face and a label on me. I don’t get involved in the numbers or anything, I just go out and try to put them up.”

“One day they’re gonna call me and tell me, ‘Hey this is something we should go ahead and go with,’ and I’m gonna say yes. I’m not even gonna ask what the number is,” he declared.

After an offseason full of player/agent drama, most notably with Jordan Montgomery leaving Scott Boras after a protracted, disappointing free agency outcome, Casas is even more grateful for his own agent, whom he’s known since eighth grade and describes as “almost like a second dad.”

“He was always there for me, he was always in my corner. He’s been with me throughout so much. He’s somebody that I’m able to talk to, lean on, get advice from for a really long time now. I wholeheartedly trust him with my life,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot of bad stories about certain agents, and I’m really happy, fortunate that I have mine.”

Even so, what Casas says he truly wants from the Red Sox can’t technically be quantified or won by negotiation.

“I’m not a selfish person, I’m low-maintenance, I don’t need a lot,” he said, “but I feel like I’m liked here, but I want to feel loved, that’s all.”

“I feel a lot of love from the fans, I feel an immense amount of support from the fans,” he clarified. “I know that I’m liked (by the front office), I know they like me, but I want to feel loved.”