SAN DIEGO —— After they were unceremoniously ushered from the playoffs well after 11 p.m. Saturday night, the Padres retreated to the Petco Park clubhouse. There they exchanged hugs and handshakes, bidding each other farewell for the winter.

Some players sensed that the parting was more than temporary.

"You're saying goodbye, and then it hits you —— this could really be goodbye," Padres second baseman Mark Loretta.

By getting swept in the National League division series by the St. Louis Cardinals, the Padres secured a dubious place in baseball history, as the only playoff team to lose more games than it won (82-80 in the regular season, 0-3 in the postseason). Thus, the winter tinkering that one would expect to be done to a division champion could be closer to a drastic overhaul in the Padres' case.

"When you face adversity like we did, friendships form and you create a bond," said Padres pitcher Woody Williams, who lasted only 1 2/3 innings in the 7-4 loss in Game 3 on Saturday. "It's going to be hard to see people split apart."

Williams is not among the Padres in limbo, as he locked in his 2006 option at a guaranteed salary of $5 million when he made his 25th start this season. Among the eight other members of the Padres' Game 3 lineup, however, were four potential free agents (right fielder Brian Giles, catcher Ramon Hernandez, third baseman Joe Randa and first baseman Robert Fick) and one arbitration-eligible player (Dave Roberts).

The Padres' 25-man playoff roster featured six other players eligible for free agency: closer Trevor Hoffman, Game 2 starter Pedro Astacio, reliever Rudy Seanez, and utility men Mark Sweeney, Eric Young and Damian Jackson.

The Padres hold a 2006 option on Young worth $850,000. Reliever Chris Hammond, yet another free-agent-to-be, would have made the postseason roster if not for a lower abdominal injury.

Then there are players like left fielder Ryan Klesko and pitcher Chan Ho Park, both of whom have guaranteed contracts of at least $10 million but might not fit into the team's plans for next season because of eroding skills.

"Next year? I don't know," said Sweeney, who hit .294 with eight home runs and 40 RBIs in a career-high 221 at-bats. "It's out of my hands. I think I did well enough to warrant thinking about coming back.

"I was proud of the guys, the way they worked and prepared themselves. It was a pleasure."

After the season's final game, Padres manager Bruce Bochy wasn't ready to look ahead. But he did take time to glance back.

"I am proud," Bochy said. "You know, we've been riddled with the ups and downs, with the injuries. We had to deal with a lot. A lot was said about our division. If you look at how banged up the club was during the course of the season, we used everybody. They got challenged a couple times with Arizona, with the Giants there at the end, but they responded every time."