Oakland Athletics manager Bob Melvin dropped a hint Thursday that he could open the season with more than one closer.

No reliever has made a strong case for the ninth-inning role, including Ryan Madson, who had a team-high 30 saves in 2016. The 36-year-old Madson has a 6.75 ERA and 1.88 WHIP in eight Cactus League innings.

Free-agent signee Santiago Casilla, Sean Doolittle and John Axford are other veterans in the mix.

"We'd like to kind of narrow it down to 'X' here and 'X' there, and not just be this big bullpen committee thing where once you get into the game no one knows when the phone rings who's getting up,” Melvin told reporters, including Alex Espinoza of MLB.com. “Will it be one guy to particularly close? Maybe not. ... We still haven't made up our mind as far as that dynamic goes."

Doolittle had 22 saves for the A’s in 2014 but has had a limited workload this spring due to shoulder issues that have plagued the left-hander the past two years. He has an 8.44 ERA in 5 1/3 innings this spring.

-- Doug Mittler