Nolan Ryan is the all-time leader in career strikeouts. This list is for pitchers. For career strikeouts by batters, see List of Major League Baseball career strikeouts by batters leaders The following list is of the top 100 pitchers in career strikeouts in Major League Baseball . In baseball , a strikeout occurs when the batter receives three strikes during his time at bat . Strikeouts are associated with dominance on the part of the pitcher and failure on the part of the batter.
Nolan Ryan [1] [2] [3] has the most career strikeouts in Major League Baseball. During a record 27-year career, he struck out 5,714 batters. The American League record is held by Roger Clemens [4] (4,167 strikeouts),[5] while in the National League , the record is 4,000 by Steve Carlton .[6] [7]
The parentheses adjacent to an active player denote the number of strikeouts in the current season. The last change in the cutoff for the top 100 occurred on April 14, 2024, when Yu Darvish struck out his 1,951st batter, displacing Amos Rusie .
Max Scherzer is the active leader and 11th all-time in career strikeouts. A player is considered "inactive" if he has not played baseball for one year or has announced his retirement.
Stats updated as of May 15, 2024.[8] Rank Player K 1 Nolan Ryan † 5,714 2 Randy Johnson † 4,875 3 Roger Clemens 4,672 4 Steve Carlton † 4,136 5 Bert Blyleven † 3,701 6 Tom Seaver † 3,640 7 Don Sutton † 3,574 8 Gaylord Perry † 3,534 9 Walter Johnson † 3,508 10 Greg Maddux † 3,371 11 Max Scherzer (0) 3,367 12 Justin Verlander (23) 3,365 13 Phil Niekro † 3,342 14 Ferguson Jenkins † 3,192 15 Pedro Martínez † 3,154 16 Bob Gibson † 3,117 17 Curt Schilling 3,116 18 CC Sabathia 3,093 19 John Smoltz † 3,084 20 Zack Greinke (0) 2,979 21 Clayton Kershaw (0) 2,944 22 Jim Bunning † 2,855 23 Mickey Lolich 2,832 24 Mike Mussina † 2,813 25 Cy Young † 2,803 26 Frank Tanana 2,773 27 David Cone 2,668 28 Chuck Finley 2,610 29 Tom Glavine † 2,607 30 Warren Spahn † 2,583 31 Bob Feller † 2,581 32 Tim Keefe † 2,564 33 Cole Hamels 2,560 34 Jerry Koosman 2,556 35 Javier Vázquez 2,536 36 Bartolo Colón 2,535 37 Félix Hernández 2,524 38 A. J. Burnett 2,513 39 Christy Mathewson † 2,502 40 Jon Lester 2,488 41 Don Drysdale † 2,486 42 Jack Morris † 2,478 43 Mark Langston 2,464 44 Jim Kaat † 2,461 45 Sam McDowell 2,453 46 Andy Pettitte 2,448 47 Jamie Moyer 2,441 48 Luis Tiant 2,416 49 Dennis Eckersley † 2,401 50 Kevin Brown 2,397
Rank Player K 51 Sandy Koufax † 2,396 52 Charlie Hough 2,362 53 Robin Roberts † 2,357 54 Early Wynn † 2,334 55 Rube Waddell † 2,316 56 Juan Marichal † 2,303 57 John Lackey 2,294 58 Dwight Gooden 2,293 59 Lefty Grove † 2,266 60 Chris Sale (61) 2,250 61 Eddie Plank † 2,246 62 Tommy John 2,245 63 James Shields 2,234 64 Jim Palmer † 2,212 65 Jake Peavy 2,207 66 Adam Wainwright 2,202 67 David Wells 2,201 68 Grover Cleveland Alexander † 2,198 69 Vida Blue 2,175 70 Camilo Pascual 2,167 71 Tim Wakefield 2,156 72 Gerrit Cole (0) 2,152 73 Dennis Martínez 2,149 74 Roy Halladay † 2,117 75 Kevin Millwood 2,083 76 Bobo Newsom 2,082 77 Tim Hudson 2,080 78 David Price 2,076 79 Ryan Dempster 2,075 80 Fernando Valenzuela 2,074 81 Madison Bumgarner (0) 2,070 82 Dazzy Vance † 2,045 83 Rick Reuschel 2,015 84 Orel Hershiser 2,014 85 Dan Haren 2,013 86 Catfish Hunter † 2,012 87 Andy Benes 2,000 88 Billy Pierce 1,999 89 Kevin Appier 1,994 90 Johan Santana 1,988 91 Red Ruffing † 1,987 92 John Clarkson † 1,978 Ervin Santana 1,978 94 Liván Hernández 1,976 95 Al Leiter 1,974 96 Bob Welch 1,969 97 Kenny Rogers 1,968 98 Yu Darvish (37) 1,966 99 Whitey Ford † 1,956 100 Bobby Witt 1,955
See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] ^ "Nolan Ryan Career Stats" . Baseball Reference . Retrieved July 28, 2021 . ^ Boston, Talmadge. "Nolan Ryan Bio" . Society For American Baseball Research . Retrieved July 28, 2021 . ^ "Nolan Ryan Hall of Fame Profile" . National Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved August 1, 2021 . ^ "Roger Clemens Career Stats" . Baseball Reference . Retrieved July 28, 2021 . ^ "Player Pitching Season & Career Finder: Spanning Multiple Seasons or entire Careers, In the Regular Season, since 1871, Playing in the AL, requiring Strikeouts >= 3000, sorted by greatest Strikeouts" . Stathead . Retrieved April 14, 2021 . ^ "Steve Carlton Career Stats" . Baseball Reference . Retrieved July 28, 2021 . ^ "Player Pitching Season & Career Finder:Spanning Multiple Seasons or entire Careers, In the Regular Season, since 1871, Playing in the NL, requiring Strikeouts >= 3000, sorted by greatest Strikeouts" . Stathead . Retrieved April 14, 2021 . ^ MLB.com – Career Leaders for Strikeouts
General Batting leaders
Career Annual Season Game Misc
Baserunning leaders
Pitching leaders
Career Annual Season Game Misc
Fielding leaders
Sabermetrics leaders Managing records Multiple stat records Other