Career Leaders for Striking Out

Each of the following players holds a dubious mark in baseball history and each of them could easily be a pitchers great moment, and two innings later be a pitchers call to the bullpen.

Baseball Almanac is pleased to present the top one-hundred (100) all-time career leaders in Major League strikeouts. Note: A bold faced entry denotes that the player was active during the previous Major League season.

"The only way I'm going to get a Gold Glove is with a can of spray paint." - Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson (1st Overall Strikeouts Leader)
Strikeouts
All Time Leaders

'Top 100'

Reggie Jackson 2,597 1
Jim Thome 2,313 2
Sammy Sosa 2,306 3
Andres Galarraga 2,003 4
Jose Canseco 1,942 5
Willie Stargell 1,936 6
Mike Schmidt 1,883 7
Fred McGriff 1,882 8
Tony Perez 1,867 9
Dave Kingman 1,816 10
Mike Cameron 1,798 11
Ken Griffey, Jr. 1,761 12
Bobby Bonds 1,757 13
Craig Biggio 1,753 14
Dale Murphy 1,748 15
Manny Ramirez 1,748  
Carlos Delgado 1,745 17
Alex Rodriguez 1,738 18
Lou Brock 1,730 19
Mickey Mantle 1,710 20
Harmon Killebrew 1,699 21
Chili Davis 1,698 22
Dwight Evans 1,697 23
Rickey Henderson 1,694 24
Dave Winfield 1,686 25
Jim Edmonds 1,669 26
Reggie Sanders 1,614 27
Gary Gaetti 1,602 28
Mark McGwire 1,596 29
Lee May 1,570 30
Jeff Bagwell 1,558 31
Dick Allen 1,556 32
Ray Lankford 1,550 33
Willie McCovey 1,550  
Andruw Jones 1,542 35
Barry Bonds 1,539 36
Dave Parker 1,537 37
Frank Robinson 1,532 38
Lance Parrish 1,527 39
Willie Mays 1,526 40
Devon White 1,526  
Jeff Kent 1,522 42
Bobby Abreu 1,518 43
Eddie Murray 1,516 44
Rick Monday 1,513 45
Greg Vaughn 1,513  
Andre Dawson 1,509 47
Tony Phillips 1,499 48
Greg Luzinski 1,495 49
Eddie Mathews 1,487 50
Derek Jeter 1,466 51
Frank Howard 1,460 52
Jay Bell 1,443 53
Juan Samuel 1,442 54
Harold Baines 1,441 55
Jack Clark 1,441  
Adam Dunn 1,433 57
Mo Vaughn 1,429 58
Jimmy Wynn 1,427 59
Jim Rice 1,423 60
George Foster 1,419 61
George Scott 1,418 62
Royce Clayton 1,415 63
Ron Gant 1,411 64
Darrell Evans 1,410 65
Rob Deer 1,409 66
Jay Buhner 1,406 67
Eric Davis 1,398 68
Frank Thomas 1,397 69
Carl Yastrzemski 1,393 70
Pat Burrell 1,392 71
Jose Hernandez 1,391 72
Jason Giambi 1,388 73
Joe Carter 1,387 74
Carlton Fisk 1,386 75
Hank Aaron 1,383 76
Ivan Rodriguez 1,380 77
Derrek Lee 1,378 78
Jeromy Burnitz 1,376 79
Travis Fryman 1,369 80
Matt Williams 1,363 81
Danny Tartabull 1,362 82
Tim Salmon 1,360 83
Larry Parrish 1,359 84
Darryl Strawberry 1,352 85
Robin Yount 1,350 86
Rafael Palmeiro 1,348 87
Ron Santo 1,343 88
Julio Franco 1,341 89
Ellis Burks 1,340 90
Gorman Thomas 1,339 91
Dean Palmer 1,332 92
Babe Ruth 1,330 93
Deron Johnson 1,318 94
Cecil Fielder 1,316 95
Shawn Green 1,315 96
Willie Horton 1,313 97
Richie Sexson 1,313  
Jimmie Foxx 1,311 99
Jermaine Dye 1,308 100
Current Through 2009 Season


Did you know that Hall of Famer Tony Perez, who is ranked eighth (8th) in all-time career strikeouts, never led any single season in striking out?

In 1978 Bobby Bonds struck out for the one-thousand five-hundredth (1,500th) time of his career and it occurred during his eleventh (11th) big league season — the quickest of any player in Major League history to reach that infamous plateau.

Reggie Jackson was the first player to reach the 2,000 strikeout plateau, in 2003 he finally had company when Andres Galarraga joined the "club" and Sammy Sosa made it a trio in 2004.