MLB pitchers with 3,000 strikeouts: Where Clayton Kershaw will rank on baseball’s all-time career Ks list

The 3,000 strikeout club remains a holy grail for pitchers.

While strikeouts have risen over the last two decades and pitchers seem to have as many advantages over hitters as ever before, the 3,000 mark requires a kind of consistency and durability that is hard to find across baseball.

An era of increased velocity also brings an era of increased arm injuries. To reach 3,000 strikeouts, a starting pitcher has to consistently miss bats while still staying healthy enough to remain available year-in and year-out for the bulk of his career. Naturally, the 3,000-strikeout club is an exclusive one.

Here’s a look at each pitcher with at least 3,000 strikeouts and how far Clayton Kershaw can climb on the all-time list. 

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How many pitchers are in the 3,000 strikeouts club?

There are 19 MLB pitchers who have reached the 3,000-strikeout milestone. If and when Kershaw records No. 3000, he will be the 20th to join the club.

Reaching 3,000 strikeouts in this era of baseball might be more difficult than ever, despite strikeout rates being so high. Only 12 pitchers with at least 3,000 strikeouts threw less than 5,000 innings, which is virtually unattainable in modern baseball. 

Here’s the complete list of pitchers who have reached the 3,000-strikeout milestone.

MLB pitchers with 3,000 strikeouts

CC Sabathia is the most recent MLB pitcher to record his 3,000th strikeout, joining the club in 2019.

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Most MLB strikeouts all time

Nolan Ryan holds the record for most strikeouts in MLB history with 5,714, coming in at 839 more strikeouts than second-ranked Randy Johnson.

Ryan’s record is almost certainly unbreakable. He spent 27 seasons in the major leagues, which would be extraordinarily difficult for any pitcher to do in this era or any era, and he recorded five seasons of more than 280 innings; no pitcher will be doing that again, at least under the current structure of the MLB season.

Nolan Ryan

Ryan pitched in four different decades, debuting with the Mets in 1966 before emerging as a regular part of their rotation in 1968. He spent the bulk of the 1970s with the Angels and 1980s with the Astros before finishing his career with the Rangers and throwing the final of his record seven no-hitters.

Health, longevity and durability allowed Ryan to shatter the all-time strikeout record. Ryan made 773 career starts and tossed 5,386 innings, both of which are marks that would be stunning to see reached in this era. While major elbow surgery has become part and parcel of being a starting pitcher in today’s MLB, Ryan was able to make at least 20 starts in 22 consecutive seasons, including at least 30 in 15 of those seasons.

Ryan’s career strikeout rate of 9.5 per nine innings actually comes in below many recent aces, including Blake Snell (11.2), Chris Sale (11.1), Jacob deGrom (10.8), Gerrit Cole (10.4) and Kershaw (9.7). Three of those pitchers have had Tommy John Surgery, while Snell rarely lasts beyond six innings in a start and Kershaw has dealt with numerous late-career injuries.

Compared to today’s pitchers, Ryan is a unicorn — and his durability will allow him to hold onto the record indefinitely at the very least.

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MLB 2,000 strikeout club

90 MLB pitchers are in the 2,000-strikeout club, including six active pitchers: Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, Chris Sale, Gerrit Cole and Charlie Morton. 

Here’s the complete list, with Kershaw ranking 20th:

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Will there be another 3,000-strikeout pitcher?

MLB teams averaged eight strikeouts per game for the first time ever in 2016, and the figure has remained higher than eight per game each season since. While the increase has slowed since the late 2010s, shouldn’t it be easier than ever to reach 3,000 strikeouts?

Because of durability issues and innings limits, it isn’t. Many of the all-time strikeout leaders pitched in an era of lower velocity, when a career with 4,000 or 5,000 innings was attainable and Tommy John Surgery wasn’t as common. Increases in velocity and spin have resulted in more strikeouts, but they have also resulted in higher risk of injury. Not only do pitchers’ careers tend to be a bit shorter, but teams are incentivized to be extra cautious with their arms. All of those factors naturally limit a pitcher’s path to a milestone like 3,000 strikeouts. 

That doesn’t mean Kershaw will be the last pitcher to reach the milestone. As long as strikeouts are high, there is always a realistic chance for the right pitcher to stay healthy long enough to reach 3,000 strikeouts. In fact, Chris Sale’s late-career surge could put him on track for 3,000 strikeouts despite him making just 11 starts from 2020-2022. Sale won the NL Cy Young Award with 225 strikeouts in 2024, and he is now less than 500 strikeouts away from the milestone. If he pitches until he’s 39 and stays mostly healthy, 3,000 is within reach, even if it’s far from a guarantee.

Still, 3,000 strikeouts will be a monumental task for any pitcher going forward — and that’s probably the way it should be, given the size of the club.