The Blue Jays are still seeking a bullpen ace for 2015, after saying goodbye to Casey Janssen, but all of a sudden, the man they had quietly targeted, left-hander Andrew Miller has become the hottest commodity in free-agency, rumoured to be able to command four years for between $35-40 million from any number of teams, that, even though he’s never before been a closer. The Jays may need to begin thinking about a Plan B, although GM Alex Anthopoulos is forever aware of that, going in.

Those rumoured numbers are surely not the prices Anthopoulos believed he would be staring at for a 29-year-old setup man. The highly-regarded website, MLB Trade Rumors, at the finish of the World Series compiled its list of the Top 50 free agents available. Nine of those were relief pitchers: No. 13-David Robertson; 17-Miller; 32-Luke Gregorson; 35-Sergio Romo; 36-Francisco Rodriguez; 37-Rafael Soriano; 44-Janssen; 45-Pat Neshek and 47-Jason Grilli. So, if not Miller, why not Janssen?

“I definitely would be willing to listen,” Janssen said on Tuesday, from his home in a rainy Southern California. “It would be silly not to. They know me better than anybody.”

Also, what the Jays should know better than anybody is that Janssen’s final stats for 2014 may well be an under-reporting of his expected 2015 results. He might be a good second option, a chance for a relative bargain in setup or closing for any team that signs the 33-year-old right-hander.

He was blindsided. A trip to the Dominican Republic that he took at the all-star break likely has cost him millions. When he returned to Toronto, the night before the season resumed, he came down with food poisoning and lost nine pounds. He pitched through it for a month as he regained strength.

“In hindsight, maybe I would have gone on the (disabled list),” Janssen said. “When you’re not 100 per cent you’ve got to get creative. Being a competitive person, you don’t want to discredit batters. Having said that, I was putting the ball where I wanted to and the results turned to worse. It snowballs. You lose a little bit of confidence and you try harder. The hitters sense it and it gets worse.”

It took him more than a month to return to full strength and by the time he was regaining his stuff and his confidence, manager John Gibbons was losing his confidence in his stuff. To make it worse, Janssen believed he was told by Gibbons not to worry, that he was still his closer, while at the same time telling media that the job would go to Aaron Sanchez or whoever he felt would do the job on that given day. Janssen’s closing opportunities as he headed towards free-agency became far-between.

“I understand there’s a lot of pressure from (the front office),” Janssen said. “He had to do what he had to do. I want the team to win as much as anyone. Not to defend myself, but when I started to struggle, it became ‘Am I going to close or not going to close.’ I got my confidence back late in the year and was able to salvage the finish. If I can get through that season, I can get through any season.”

All that being said, should Janssen be considered an option for Anthopoulos, especially if Miller, Gregorson, K-Rod and Grilli sign elsewhere? Could Janssen be welcomed back into the fold as a free-agent, with no guarantee that he will be the closer? If he remains unsigned into January, maybe.

Janssen indicated there were talks and interest for an extension from the Jays around the time of the all-star break, but that they both decided to wait to continue talks. Janssen began the season on the DL with a back strain, but from May 12 until the ill-timed trip to the Dominican, he was 3-0, with 14 saves, allowing 18 hits, one walk and 14 strikeouts in 22.0 innings. Projected over a full season, that would be eight wins and 39 saves, with a .217 opponent batting average and a .491 OPS. Solid.

“I was pitching with so much confidence in the first half,” Janssen recalled. Then the sickness and even though he finished strongly, with four saves and a 1.35 ERA in seven appearances, the Jays were already far removed from any post-season and his finish was virtually invisible.

A now-healthy Janssen understands that the market for him and the other relievers in the Top 50 of free-agency will wait until Robertson, or Miller, or both, sign. Only then, will other teams begin to survey the rest of the closer landscape and make some decisions. If the Jays are among those teams, if they don’t get Miller and with the market for Janssen damaged by physical and emotional travails of the second half, why not repatriate someone that they used to know, give him reasonable dollars — his 2014 salary was $4 million — but make him earn the closer’s role.