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
Sammy Sosa 2,306 2
Jim Thome 2,043 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
Bobby Bonds 1,757 11
Craig Biggio 1,753 12
Dale Murphy 1,748 13
Lou Brock 1,730 14
Mickey Mantle 1,710 15
Harmon Killebrew 1,699 16
Chili Davis 1,698 17
Dwight Evans 1,697 18
Rickey Henderson 1,694 19
Dave Winfield 1,686 20
Reggie Sanders 1,614 21
Gary Gaetti 1,602 22
Carlos Delgado 1,601 23
Mark McGwire 1,596 24
Ken Griffey, Jr. 1,593 25
Jim Edmonds 1,587 26
Lee May 1,570 27
Jeff Bagwell 1,558 28
Dick Allen 1,556 29
Ray Lankford 1,550 30
Willie McCovey 1,550  
Manny Ramirez 1,543 32
Barry Bonds 1,539 33
Dave Parker 1,537 34
Frank Robinson 1,532 35
Lance Parrish 1,527 36
Willie Mays 1,526 37
Devon White 1,526  
Alex Rodriguez 1,524 39
Eddie Murray 1,516 40
Rick Monday 1,513 41
Greg Vaughn 1,513  
Andre Dawson 1,509 43
Mike Cameron 1,500 44
Tony Phillips 1,499 45
Greg Luzinski 1,495 46
Eddie Mathews 1,487 47
Jeff Kent 1,470 48
Frank Howard 1,460 49
Jay Bell 1,443 50
Juan Samuel 1,442 51
Harold Baines 1,441 52
Jack Clark 1,441  
Mo Vaughn 1,429 54
Jimmy Wynn 1,427 55
Jim Rice 1,423 56
George Foster 1,419 57
George Scott 1,418 58
Royce Clayton 1,415 59
Ron Gant 1,411 60
Darrell Evans 1,410 61
Rob Deer 1,409 62
Jay Buhner 1,406 63
Eric Davis 1,398 64
Andruw Jones 1,394 65
Carl Yastrzemski 1,393 66
Jose Hernandez 1,391 67
Joe Carter 1,387 68
Carlton Fisk 1,386 69
Hank Aaron 1,383 70
Jeromy Burnitz 1,376 71
Travis Fryman 1,369 72
Matt Williams 1,363 73
Danny Tartabull 1,362 74
Tim Salmon 1,360 75
Larry Parrish 1,359 76
Darryl Strawberry 1,352 77
Robin Yount 1,350 78
Rafael Palmeiro 1,348 79
Ron Santo 1,343 80
Julio Franco 1,341 81
Ellis Burks 1,340 82
Frank Thomas 1,340  
Gorman Thomas 1,339 84
Dean Palmer 1,332 85
Babe Ruth 1,330 86
Deron Johnson 1,318 87
Cecil Fielder 1,316 88
Shawn Green 1,315 89
Willie Horton 1,313 90
Jimmie Foxx 1,311 91
Mickey Tettleton 1,307 92
Tim Wallach 1,307  
Cal Ripken, Jr. 1,305 94
Steve Finley 1,299 95
Bobby Abreu 1,296 96
Bret Boone 1,295 97
Jose Valentin 1,294 98
Derek Jeter 1,291 99
Kirk Gibson 1,285 100
Current Through 2007 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.