Still in full uniform, including his blue and red Phillies jacket, Manuel grabbed the reliever for an embrace. He whispered something in Alfonseca's ear, which had him smiling within seconds.

Since laughing in the face of postseason elimination would be inappropriate, a smile would suffice.

Ditto for Brett Myers, Cole Hamels and Kyle Kendrick, as each found himself in Manuel's path. It didn't matter that his postgame meal was getting cold. Manuel wanted to say, "thanks."

"We scratched and clawed all year," Manuel said. "No one ever gave up or quit."

This was more than an hour after Philadelphia's season had ended with a 2-1 loss to Colorado, and Manuel wanted to make sure his players understood how much he appreciated their efforts.

Sometime next week, it likely will be determined whether the Phillies appreciated Manuel. It's no secret that Manuel managed without a contract for this season, and his return is far from certain. The team approached him before the season ended, and let him know that they would like him back.

"Am I confident?" Manuel said. "The only time I'm confident is if I'm sitting here and you tell me, 'Hey, Chuck, you've got a thousand million dollars.' Until it's in my hand, I don't have nothing. That's kind of how I look at life. So, we'll see."

General manager Pat Gillick offered a stern "No comment" when asked how he expected the discussions to play out. The fact that Gillick's contract runs out after the 2008 season is complicating matters. Gillick intends to retire after that season, and it is believed that he's leery of saddling a new GM with a manager he didn't hire.

If the players made the decision, it would be easy.

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"It would be nice if he was back," Ryan Howard said. "I don't know what they're going to do. He's a player's coach, and he kept a lot of things together."

Manuel pulled the strings on an 89-win season that resulted in the NL East title, shaking off numerous injuries to key players in the process. The Phillies recovered from a 4-11 start, and they went 13-4 in the final 17 games to capture the division.

"It would be nice to have Charlie back," Jimmy Rollins said. "I don't make that decision. That will be made by the people upstairs. If it's Charlie, I'll be out there putting on the [uniform]. If it's not Charlie, I'll be doing the same thing. But it would nice to have him back."