SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Rockies manager Walt Weiss has studied the résumés.

He’s quite aware that left-hander Jake McGee strikes out plenty of batters. He knows that right-hander Jason Motte has 60 career saves. He’s mindful of the fact that both relief pitchers rely primarily on fastballs to get the job done.

But Weiss must go beyond what’s on paper as he selects the Rockies’ closer to open the 2016 season on April 4 at Arizona.

“I look for reliability, more than anything else,” Weiss said Tuesday. “And, of course, the ability to throw strikes and a guy that can handle that moment in the game. Those three outs in the ninth are a little bit different. Some guys it affects, some guys it doesn’t.”

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Weiss says he’s in no rush to name Colorado’s ninth-inning man, but clearly McGee and Motte are the top candidates, at least to begin the season. Hard-throwing youngster Miguel Castro, so impressive this spring, could get a look at some point during the season.

“Especially with the bullpen, things evolve,” Weiss said. “Maybe because of a matchup or workload, things can change. But we will probably break here with a specific guy.”

Motte, 33, who signed a two-year, $10 million contract during the offseason, probably has the edge over McGee because of his experience. In 2012, Motte had 42 saves for the St. Louis Cardinals, most in the National League.

But he missed all of the 2013 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. His fastball has regained its velocity — up to 95 mph last season, when he made 57 appearances for the Chicago Cubs, finishing 8-1 with a 3.91 ERA and six saves. A late-season shoulder strain kept him off the Cubs’ postseason roster, but he said he’ll be able to crank the pitch up to 95 again this season.

In 2014-15, Motte threw his fastball 95.5 percent of the time, so there’s no trickery going on. Weiss says he loves Motte’s aggressive mentality.

“He gets the ball and he attacks,” Weiss said. “There’s not a lot going on there. That’s who he’s always been. The ball is still coming out of his hand really well, he commands the ball and he doesn’t walk people. He just gets the ball and goes.”

Although McGee is a southpaw, he is not a left-handed, late-game specialist. Last season with Tampa Bay, McGee limited lefties to a .196 average and was nearly as tough against right-handers, holding them to a .200 average.

“I’ll pitch whenever the Rockies want me to,” McGee said. “I can pitch in the seventh, eighth or ninth to help us win the game. That’s what I did in Tampa.”

McGee has been working on his curveball this spring, but his dominant pitch will always be his two-seam fastball, a pitch with an average velocity of almost 96 mph during his career.

That has led to a lot of strikeouts. Indeed, according to Fangraphs, McGee fanned 32.0 percent of the batters he has faced in each of the past four seasons, good enough for 14th in the majors.

Patrick Saunders: psaunders@denverpost.com or @psaundersdp