PHOENIX -- Jason Kendall started more games than any other catcher in baseball last season, but that could change in 2009 if the manager gets his way.

Brewers skipper Ken Macha is considering pairing Kendall's backup, probably Mike Rivera, with one of Milwaukee's five starting pitchers in an effort to get Rivera more playing time while keeping Kendall fresh for key games at the end of the season. It would be a loose pairing, Macha stressed, and he knows he'll get plenty of resistance from Kendall.

"I could see him getting at least one day off a week, but he's not going to be happy about it," said Macha, who was Kendall's manager in Oakland in 2005 and 2006. "It's just too bad."

Kendall, who turns 35 in June, showed no signs of wear last season, when he led the Majors with 149 starts, including each of Milwaukee's final 34 regular-season games. He threw out more would-be base stealers (36) than any other big league catcher and ranked second in caught stealing percentage (39.6 percent). That after throwing out just 13-of-124 in 2007 (10.5 percent).

Macha installed a similar setup in 2006, when backup Adam Melhuse caught Esteban Loaiza's early-season starts. But at some point, Loaiza asked for Kendall, and Kendall ended up starting 141 games that season. In 2005, Kendall started 146 games.

He's the only catcher in baseball to make at least 130 starts in each of the past seven seasons.

"We'll just have to see how it goes," Macha said. "I don't want to go down to the end of the year and have my catcher's tongue dragging down on the ground. That would be nonproductive."

Macha will make his decision during Spring Training, but he did say he may prefer to pair Rivera with one of the team's veteran starters. It probably will not be Jeff Suppan, who works well with Kendall. It could be left-hander Manny Parra, even though Parra does not fit the veteran mold. Rivera and Parra were paired often last season, and Rivera caught Parra's perfect game for Triple-A Nashville in 2007.

Rivera was in the big leagues all of last season but, somewhat remarkably, he played in only 17 games and started only 13. He's not exactly a huge drop-off; in just 62 at-bats over 21 games, Rivera batted .306 and drove in 14 runs.

Kendall has been battling a bad cold so he was excused from Monday's workout a bit earlier than the rest of the catchers.