New York Yankees
The All Time Strikeout Leaders in MLB History
From the time the first pitch was thrown in a Major League Baseball game, a strikeout pitcher has been a hot commodity. The Hall of Fame features pitchers with mediocre win-loss records but tons of strikeouts.
The shorter outings for pitchers limit the opportunity of piling up strikeouts in modern-day professional baseball as teams try not to overwork their star hurlers. That was not the case when Nolan Ryan, Bob Gibson, and other all-time greats were overpowering hitters without any concerns about excessive pitch counts.
We’ll say with certainty that Nolan Ryan’s MLB strikeout record will not be broken this year, next year, next decade, or the decade after.
Let’s examine the all-time strikeout leaders and the next wave of hurlers who can make hitters look foolish.
MLB Strikeout Leaders: Top Pitchers of All Time
Most Strikeouts All Time: A Look at the Best
Walter Johnson was the first of the elite strikeout pitchers. Depending on which database you trust, he finished with 3508 or 3509 strikeouts at the time of his retirement in 1927. That was the most strikeouts of all time.
Tim Keefe was the career strikeout leader with 2562 before Johnson came around.
Following Johnson’s retirement, no pitcher recorded 3000 strikeouts until Bob Gibson accomplished the feat in 1974. Six years later, Nolan Ryan recorded his 3000th career strikeout. He would surpass Johnson as the career strikeout leader in 1983. Ryan’s career strikeout mark of 5714 is hard to fathom. Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers led all players in 2024 with 228 strikeouts. It would take a pitcher more than 25 seasons to catch Ryan if they averaged 228 strikeouts each year. Ryan will be at No. 1 among the MLB pitching leaders for quite some time.
Active Pitchers Top The Strikeout Per Nine Inning List
Interestingly, most players with the top strikeouts per nine innings are active pitchers.
Blake Snell, who will join the star-studded rotation of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers after stints with the Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, and the San Francisco Giants, leads all MLB pitchers with an average of 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings, followed by Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves at 11.09. Sale has pitched nearly 900 more innings than Snell, so let’s see what happens in the next few years.
Robbie Ray is next at 11.06. That means the three pitchers averaging at least 11 strikeouts per inning with at least 1000 career innings pitched are left-handed hurlers.
Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer round out the top five. Randy Johnson (10.61 strikeouts per nine innings) leads the list of retired pitchers in that category, with Stephen Strasburg, Kerry Wood, and Pedro Martinez not far behind.
Sale led all qualified pitchers with an average of 11.398 strikeouts per nine innings during the 2024 MLB season.
Who Has the Most Strikeouts in MLB History? Top Names
As mentioned above, Ryan answers the question of who has the most strikeouts in MLB history. Randy Johnson was the only other pitcher to make a run at 5000 career strikeouts.
While Ryan had more than 300 strikeouts six times in his Hall of Fame career, Johnson had five 300-strikeout seasons.
Johnson struggled to stay healthy in his last few seasons, keeping him from joining Ryan with more than 5000 career strikeouts. He finished with 4875 career strikeouts.
Roger Clemens and Steve Carlton are the only other pitchers with over 4000 strikeouts.
Burt Blyleven, owner of one of the best curveballs in MLB history, Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Gaylord Perry, Walter Johnson, and Justin Verlander wrap up the top 10.
The Prestigious 3000 Strikeout Club
MLB Pitchers Who Achieved 3000 Strikeouts
There are 19 players in MLB history with 3000 career strikeouts.
Ryan, Johnson, Clemens, Carlton, Blyleven, Seaver, Sutton, Perry, Johnson, and Verlander are already mentioned as part of the 3000-strikeout club.
Max Scherzer recently passed Greg Maddux for 11th on the career strikeout list. Phil Niekro, Ferguson Jenkins, Pedro Martinez, Bob Gibson, Curt Schilling, CC Sabathia, and John Smoltz are also part of the 3000-strikeout club.
Elite 2000 Strikeout Club
Players Who Reached 2000 Strikeouts in MLB
Back when pitchers usually went the distance, it was a reasonable goal to hit 3000 career strikeouts. The current group of starting pitchers might want to lower the bar and eye 2000 strikeouts.
Walter Johnson averaged 7.4 innings per game, and Ryan came in at 6.67.
Justin Verlander is the active leader in career strikeouts. He hasn’t thrown a complete game since the 2019 season. He has averaged 6.49 innings over his 526 career starts. However, that number has dropped to 5.7 over his last three seasons.
It is harder to rack up the strikeouts when you are limited to five or six innings per start. Also, the move from four to five-man rotations reduces the number of starts for the elite pitchers.
Verlander and Max Scherzer have both surpassed the 3000 career strikeout plateau. Clayton Kershaw needs 32 more strikeouts to join them.
Celebrate that achievement. It might be a while before baseball fans see three active pitchers with more than 3000 career strikeouts when they retire.
Chris Sale is next with 2414 career strikeouts among active players, followed by Gerrit Cole at 2251. Charlie Morton, Lance Lynn, and Yu Darvish are the only other active hurlers to be members of the 2000-strikeout club.
Who Has The Most Strikeouts In A Season?
From 1884 to 1886, five pitchers had more than 400 strikeouts in a season. Among modern-day pitchers, Nolan Ryan leads the way with 383 strikeouts in 1973, followed by Sandy Koufax with 382 in 1965.
Among active pitchers, Gerrit Cole’s mark of 326 in 2019 is the standard. Chris Sale, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and Clayton Kershaw are the only other active pitchers with at least 300 strikeouts in a season.
For those wondering who owns the record for strikeouts in a season, Matt Kilroy struck out 513 batters in his 68 starts in 1886 with the Baltimore Orioles. That is nearly half of his career strikeout total.
How Rare Are 4-Strikeout Innings?
There have been 102 pitchers with four strikeouts in an inning. The last time it happened was in 2023 by Tyler Glasnow of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Who Struck Out The Least in MLB History?
Joe Sewell owns the MLB record by striking out just 1.6% of the time. Tony Gwynn leads the way among modern-day players with strikeouts in 4.6% of his at-bats.
