Ex-Phillie Kyle Kendrick struggled with retirement. Then he followed Roy Halladay into coaching.

It wasn’t time for Kyle Kendrick to retire, but his right shoulder disagreed. He spent most of 2017 with Boston’s triple-A team, riding the bus on minor-league road trips a decade after reaching the majors. And that was it. He was 33 years old.

“It wasn’t easy,” Kendrick said. “For some guys, it’s easier to deal with. For some guys, it’s tougher. It was tough at first. I wanted to keep playing. My career ended how it ended and I have no regrets with how it ended, but it was just tough to get back into doing something.”

Kendrick tried to work for the Phillies, but that didn’t pan out. He scouted for Tampa Bay but missed being home. He considered opening a restaurant but backed out. He had played baseball since he was 5 years old and didn’t know what to do when the game stopped.

“It’s kind of who we are and then it was gone,” Kendrick said.

Kendrick reached the majors at age 22 in 2007, joining the Phillies straight from double A and playing a key role as a rookie for the division champions. They won the World Series in 2008, went back the next year, and reached the postseason the next two seasons. It was quite the introduction to the big leagues.

“The older guys on the team told me that it won’t always be like this,” Kendrick said. “Some guys play forever and never get there.”

A decade later, it was over. The 2008 Phillies have now all retired, forcing the players who won the city’s first championship in 25 years to find second careers. For some, that meant coaching in the minors. For others, it meant working in a front office. For Kendrick, he didn’t know what it meant. Then he got a call from Roy Halladay, the pitcher who became his mentor after joining the Phillies in 2010.

Halladay, who lived near Kendrick in Florida, had been coaching at his son’s high school. He knew his old teammate needed something to do, so he invited him to join. The pitcher who helped Kendrick become a better major leaguer helped him get acclimated to life after playing.

“He just told me to come by and hang out,” Kendrick said. “Be around the game again. I missed baseball and I missed being around it.”

Kendrick coached at Calvary Christian High in Clearwater, Fla., for two years after Halladay died in 2017. He loved it. Halladay was as intense as a coach — “He was yelling from the dugout,” Kendrick said — as he was on the mound, while Kendrick tried his best to keep calm.

Kendrick now coaches his son’s youth team with the Florida Burn organization — the same program Halladay once coached — and gives lessons every afternoon inside a batting cage he built in his yard. Kendrick finally found his place after retiring by instructing kids, just like Halladay did.

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“It’s weird how you can say I’m kind of following in the same footsteps,” Kendrick said. “Right now, I’m finally starting to get into the next chapter. It took me nearly seven years to figure out what I wanted to do.”

Kendrick built the batting cage for his son, but soon parents started asking him to teach their kids. Maybe, Kendrick thought, he could grow it. He gives lessons — hitting, too — to kids ages 8 to 18. He calls it the Kyle Kendrick Major League Academy. The biggest reward for Kendrick has been watching his pupils develop. His next chapter has been rewarding.

“You definitely have to have some patience,” Kendrick said. “When I played, as a player I always wanted a coach to give me confidence. This game is really hard and there’s a lot of failure in baseball. I always try to be really confident and give my players something to work on and something to strive to be. Give them confidence, be patient.”

Kendrick returns to Philadelphia every summer to catch a Phils game and vacation at the Jersey Shore since his wife, Stephenie, grew up in Delaware County and went to Archbishop Prendergast. He’s reminded how important that World Series was when fans stop him 15 years later to thank him. He remembers how special it felt that night to hop over the dugout rail, jump onto his teammates, walk around Center City sipping beers, and party at Pat Burrell’s apartment.

He was 24 years old. It couldn’t get any better. Nine years later, the ride was over. It was time to find something else. And he finally did with the help of an old friend.

“When you’re coming up, you always think you’re going to be in the big leagues forever and you should think like that,” Kendrick said. “It’s hard to say because I probably couldn’t have done it, but you have to focus on the game while you’re playing and have something in the back of your mind for when you’re done playing.

“When you step away, you have to jump into something. I know it’s hard. But you have to. Just to stay busy. Because that time will come. Some guys handle it differently than others. It can be depressing. You want to play. Then all of a sudden, the game you loved your whole life is gone.”