Eight months after being diagnosed with cancer, Minnesota Twins general manager Terry Ryan says he feels "pretty good" and would like to return to his post for the 2015 season.
"I'm feeling pretty good. I'm doing quite well, actually," Ryan, 60, told reporters. "It was a bit of a tough deal, back in the day, in the hospital. ... I got cancer. It's tough, but I'm OK now."
Ryan was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma after a cancerous lump was found in his neck. He had surgery in February to remove his lymph nodes.
"Am I physically able to do this job? Yes. If I couldn't do it, I would walk away," Ryan said. "This isn't one of those [jobs] where you can just dabble in it. You've got to take it on. And I can do that. I'm not worried about having the physical ability and energy and time to be able to do this job, or I wouldn't try it. That wouldn't be healthy."
Ryan, who returned to work full time after the season began, said returning for a fourth season in his current post depends on whether owner Jim Pohlad agrees to bring him back -- just as it does after every season.
The Twins have lost 90 games or more for four consecutive seasons.
"This is a tough, relentless job. [It has] the travel and my responsibilities and the minor leagues and the international world and the media and [everything]," Ryan said. "Traveling to the minor leagues, I got a late start on that, but I got through it."
Ryan served as the Twins' general manager from 1994 to 2007 before serving as a senior adviser to the general manager. He returned to the role of general manager in 2011.