List of top 100 Major League Baseball strikeout pitchers

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.

The pitcher with the most career strikeouts in Major League Baseball is Nolan Ryan, who struck out 5,714 batters during his career.

The List

• Bold denotes active player
• FA denotes free agent
• † denotes member of National Baseball Hall of Fame
• Stats through May 20, 2013

Rank	Player (2013 Strikeouts)	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	Tim Keefe †	2,564
28	Jerry Koosman	2,556
29	Javier Vázquez	2,536
30	Christy Mathewson †	2,502
31	Don Drysdale †	2,486
32	Jack Morris	2,478
33	Mark Langston	2,464
34	Jim Kaat	2,461

Rank	Player (2013 Strikeouts)	K
35	Sam McDowell	2,453
36	Jamie Moyer	2,441
37	Luis Tiant	2,416
38	Dennis Eckersley †	2,401
39	Kevin Brown	2,397
40	Sandy Koufax †	2,396
41	Charlie Hough	2,362
42	Andy Pettitte (39)	2,359
43	Robin Roberts †	2,357
44	Early Wynn †	2,334
45	Rube Waddell †	2,316
46	Juan Marichal †	2,303
47	Dwight Gooden	2,293
48	CC Sabathia (56)	2,270
49	Lefty Grove †	2,266
50	Eddie Plank †	2,246
51	Tommy John	2,245
52	Jim Palmer †	2,212
53	David Wells	2,201
54	Grover Cleveland Alexander †	2,198
55	Vida Blue	2,175
56	Camilo Pascual	2,167
57	Tim Wakefield	2,156
58	Dennis Martínez	2,149
59	Roy Halladay (35)	2,101
60	Kevin Millwood	2,083
61	Bobo Newsom	2,082
62	Fernando Valenzuela	2,074
63	A. J. Burnett (79)	2,050
64	Dazzy Vance †	2,045
65	Rick Reuschel	2,015
66	Orel Hershiser	2,014
67	Catfish Hunter †	2,012
68	Andy Benes	2,000

Rank	Player (2013 Strikeouts)	K
69	Billy Pierce	1,999
70	Kevin Appier	1,994
71	Johan Santana (0)	1,988
72	Red Ruffing †	1,987
73	Ryan Dempster (63)	1,981
74	John Clarkson †	1,978
75	Liván Hernández (FA)	1,976
76	Al Leiter	1,974
77	Bob Welch	1,969
78	Kenny Rogers	1,968
79	Whitey Ford †	1,956
80	Bobby Witt	1,955
81	Amos Rusie †	1,950
82	Danny Darwin	1,942
83	Tom Gordon	1,928
84	Hideo Nomo	1,918
85	Jerry Reuss	1,907
86	Kid Nichols †	1,873
87	Bartolo Colón (30)	1,863
88	Mickey Welch †	1,850
89	Frank Viola	1,844
90	Tim Hudson (39)	1,840
91	Charley Radbourn †	1,830
92	Barry Zito (31)	1,828
93	Roy Oswalt (FA)	1,818
94	Pud Galvin †	1,807
95	Jake Peavy (58)	1,806
96	Tony Mullane	1,803
97	Hal Newhouser †	1,796
98	Josh Beckett (41)	1,794
99	Ron Guidry	1,778
100	Randy Wolf (FA)	1,767

See also

• 3000 strikeout club
• Top 15, and List of active MLB players in the Top 50 in Strikeouts

References

• MLB.com
• Baseball-Reference.com