List of Major League Baseball career strikeout leaders
Rank Player K
35 Bartolo Colón ( 0 ) 2,535
36 Felix Hernandez ( 57 ) 2,524
37 A. J. Burnett 2,513
38 Christy Mathewson † 2,507
39 Don Drysdale † 2,486
40 Jack Morris † 2,478
41 Clayton Kershaw ( 189 ) 2,464
Mark Langston 2,464
43 Jim Kaat 2,461
44 Sam McDowell 2,453
45 Andy Pettitte 2,448
46 Jamie Moyer 2,441
47 Luis Tiant 2,416
48 Dennis Eckersley † 2,401
49 Kevin Brown 2,397
50 Sandy Koufax † 2,396
51 Charlie Hough 2,362
52 Robin Roberts † 2,357
53 Jon Lester ( 165 ) 2,355
54 Early Wynn † 2,334
The List
A player is considered `` inactive '' if he has not played baseball for one year or has announced his retirement . Stats updated through 2019 Season . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] 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 CC Sabathia 3,093 17 John Smoltz † 3,084 18 Justin Verlander ( 300 ) 3,006 19 Jim Bunning † 2,855 20 Mickey Lolich 2,832 21 Mike Mussina † 2,813 22 Cy Young † 2,803 23 Frank Tanana 2,773 24 Max Scherzer ( 243 ) 2,692 25 David Cone 2,668 26 Zack Greinke ( 187 ) 2,622 27 Chuck Finley 2,610 28 Tom Glavine † 2,607 29 Warren Spahn † 2,583 30 Bob Feller † 2,581 31 Tim Keefe † 2,564 32 Cole Hamels ( 143 ) 2,558 33 Jerry Koosman 2,556 34 Javier Vázquez 2,536
The following list is of the top 100 leaders 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 has the most career strikeouts in Major League Baseball. During a record 27-year career, he struck out 5,714 batters. The parentheses adjacent to an active player denote the number of strikeouts in the current season.