Twins General Manager Terry Ryan said in an interview over the weekend that he will return to his position this season.
Ryan has been around Target Field for the Twins home games, and was on the road in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, watching the Twins’ Class A-affiliate, the Kernals, over the weekend.
In an interview with the blog Knuckleballs, Ryan was asked if he would resume his role as the GM before the end of the current season. His response was, “Yeah, no question.”
According to the report though, no timetable has been set for his full time return to the team.
“Ultimately when the time is right, I’ll take a road trip and we’ll kind of make a seamless transition again,” Ryan told Knuckleballs. “I’m not sure when that’s going to be, but it shouldn’t be down in the future too far.”
Terry Ryan to KCRG-TV, our Cedar Rapids affiliate: "I'm pretty close to being full-go." Will be on #MNTwins road trip very soon. Great news.
— Darren Wolfson (@DWolfsonKSTP) June 2, 2014
Before the start of the season, Ryan was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma. The lump on Ryan’s neck was detected during a routine medical exam by Twins team physician Dr. Vijay Eyunni. A biopsy later confirmed the lump was cancerous, but had not spread from Ryan’s neck.
Ryan missed much of spring training at the Mayo Clinic and Minnesota Oncology.
Here is an excerpt from the interview.
I’m feeling OK. This is my first trip. I wanted to come here (to Cedar Rapids) so just in case I couldn’t handle it, I could just get in my vehicle and come back, but I can handle it.
I’ve got a lot of physical therapy and a lot of rehab to go still. I’m doing that. But I’m OK, I’m fine, I’m fortunate actually.
Ryan is back in Minnesota now helping prepare for the MLB Amateur Draft, which begins on Thursday.
According to 1500 ESPN, Ryan has said he’d like to draft a lot of left-handed pitching, in what is expected to be a pitching-heavy draft. The Twins will pick fifth in the draft, but Ryan said they will take the best player.
