BRADENTON, Fla. -- Are the Pirates closer to naming their closer for the 2011 season?

If they are, general manager Neal Huntington isn't tipping his hand to the two players on the roster who are in the mix for that role.

Evan Meek and Joel Hanrahan, the two pitchers who shared the closer role after Octavio Dotel was traded at the end of July, know about the same: not much.

"They haven't said anything," said Meek, here at Pirate City for a weeklong voluntary minicamp. "In terms of [management officials] making their decision, they have haven't said anything, but it isn't something that should keep you up at night. Whether it is the eighth or ninth inning that I end up working, you still need to go out and get three outs. You know that as a person who does what I do."

Hanrahan, who picked up six saves to Meek's four last season, said, "If they've got their mind up already about who the closer is going to be, I don't know. I'm just trying to get ready for spring training. I'd be happy with doing either one, working the eighth or ninth. I know I'd be fine with whatever role it is, just as long as we are getting the opportunities. If we get the opportunities, that means we are winning games and, really, that's the main concern around here."

Huntington explained how naming a closer in mid-January for the upcoming season is not a top priority, but the process has begun.

He said he and manager Clint Hurdle need to spend more time on it.

"We have talked in generalities of choosing one or the other for those specific roles. We have talked in generalities of using both. Clint and I need to spend some more time, in the future, talking about this because I know both guys, Evan and Joel, are hungry to pitch."

Huntington solidified one thing, though.

"This is not something that we have to answer right now, but this is something that we want to have an answer to before spring training," he said. We won't have a competition for the closer ... during spring training. Whoever is our closer, is our closer."

That was not always the case last season, particularly after Dotel's July 31 trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers for James McDonald and Andrew Lambo.

Relief pitchers generally are individuals of habit, and it was difficult for Meek and Hanrahan to settle into any routine in the bullpen because of uncertainty.

"It was different," Hanrahan said of last season. "Everyone likes to have a role and know when exactly the situations are that they Dere going to come into a game. Last year was different. We'd kind of sit there and look at each other, and then the phone rang [in the bullpen] and sometimes that is how we found out who was going to work. It was just different."

Meek and Hanrahan said there is not anything adversarial between them, even as they, in essence, compete for the same role. During a break in minicamp Wednesday, the two joined a small group to grab ribs for lunch, even as just a few moments before, both said in separate interviews that they'd be happy to have the responsibility of being the closer.

"You just learn to control the things that you can control. That is all you can do," Meek said. "And, after that, you let everything else just be. That is something you learn the more you play this game."

NOTE -- Right fielder Garrett Jones arrived at camp and participated in workouts Thursday. He said he did not attend the first few days of camp because he was at a family wedding in Mexico. He apparently left something behind -- about 10 pounds. Jones is noticeably slimmer "and a little bit faster, too," he said. Jones, who is slated to share time in right field with Matt Diaz in a lefty/righty split, said he has been diligent about going to a speed enhancement and velocity trainer in the offseason and is down about 10 pounds from the approximate 255 he weighed last year at this time.

Colin Dunlap's blog on the Pirates is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.