List of Major League Baseball career strikeout leaders

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 has the most career strikeouts in Major League Baseball. During a record 27-year career, he struck out 5,714 batters.

The List

†	Denotes elected to National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bold	Denotes active player.
( )	Strikeouts for the 2015 season.

A player is considered "inactive" if he has not played baseball for one year or has announced his retirement.
Stats updated through the end of 2015 season.

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	Phil Niekro †	3,342
12	Ferguson Jenkins †	3,192
13	Pedro Martínez †	3,154
14	Bob Gibson †	3,117
15	Curt Schilling	3,116
16	John Smoltz †	3,084
17	Jim Bunning †	2,855
18	Mickey Lolich	2,832
19	Mike Mussina	2,813
20	Cy Young †	2,803
21	Frank Tanana	2,773
22	David Cone	2,668
23	Chuck Finley	2,610
24	Tom Glavine †	2,607
25	Warren Spahn †	2,583
26	Bob Feller †	2,581
27	CC Sabathia (137)	2,574
28	Tim Keefe †	2,564
29	Jerry Koosman	2,556
30	Javier Vázquez	2,536
31	A. J. Burnett (143)	2,513
32	Christy Mathewson †	2,507
33	Don Drysdale †	2,486
34	Jack Morris	2,478

Rank	Player	K
35	Mark Langston	2,464
36	Jim Kaat	2,461
37	Sam McDowell	2,453
38	Andy Pettitte	2,448
39	Jamie Moyer	2,441
40	Luis Tiant	2,416
41	Dennis Eckersley †	2,401
42	Kevin Brown	2,397
43	Sandy Koufax †	2,396
44	Charlie Hough	2,362
45	Robin Roberts †	2,357
46	Early Wynn †	2,334
47	Rube Waddell †	2,316
48	Juan Marichal †	2,303
49	Dwight Gooden	2,293
50	Lefty Grove †	2,266
51	Eddie Plank †	2,246
52	Tommy John	2,245
53	Bartolo Colón (136)	2,237
54	Jim Palmer †	2,212
55	David Wells	2,201
56	Grover Cleveland Alexander †	2,198
57	Vida Blue	2,175
58	Camilo Pascual	2,167
59	Tim Wakefield	2,156
60	Dennis Martínez	2,149
61	Félix Hernández (191)	2,142
62	Roy Halladay	2,117
63	Jake Peavy (78)	2,105
64	Kevin Millwood	2,083
65	Bobo Newsom	2,082
66	Tim Hudson (64)	2,080
67	Ryan Dempster	2,075

Rank	Player	K
68	Fernando Valenzuela	2,074
69	Dazzy Vance †	2,045
70	Rick Reuschel	2,015
71	Orel Hershiser	2,014
72	Dan Haren (132)	2,013
73	Catfish Hunter †	2,012
74	Andy Benes	2,000
75	Billy Pierce	1,999
76	Kevin Appier	1,994
77	Johan Santana	1,988
78	Red Ruffing †	1,987
79	John Clarkson †	1,978
80	Liván Hernández	1,976
81	Al Leiter	1,974
82	Bob Welch	1,969
83	Kenny Rogers	1,968
84	John Lackey (175)	1,965
85	Whitey Ford †	1,956
86	Bobby Witt	1,955
87	Amos Rusie †	1,950
88	Justin Verlander (113)	1,943
89	Danny Darwin	1,942
90	Tom Gordon	1,928
91	Cole Hamels (215)	1,922
92	Hideo Nomo	1,918
93	Jerry Reuss	1,907
94	Josh Beckett	1,901
95	Zack Greinke (200)	1,887
96	Barry Zito	1,885
97	Kid Nichols †	1,873
98	Mark Buehrle (91)	1,870
99	Roy Oswalt	1,852
100	Mickey Welch †	1,850

• ^ Baseball Reference lists Kid Nichols at 1,881 strikeouts and MLB.com credits him with 1,873. Total is listed according to MLB.com.

See also

• 3,000 strikeout club
• Top 15 and List of Active MLB Players in the Top 50 in Strikeouts