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List of Major League Baseball career strikeout leaders

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List of Major League Baseball career strikeout leaders
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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.

This list is for pitchers. For career strikeouts by batters, see List of Major League Baseball career strikeouts by batters leaders.
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Nolan Ryan is the all-time leader in career strikeouts.

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 June 22, 2024, when Charlie Morton struck out his 1,957th batter, displacing Whitey Ford.

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Justin Verlander is the active leader in career strikeouts and is 10th all-time.
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A player is considered "inactive" if he has not played baseball for one year or has announced his retirement.

  • Stats updated as of August 13, 2025.[8]
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