MLB Strikeout Leaders 2025 (Pitchers)

What this chart shows. The twelve pitchers with the most strikeouts in the 2025 regular season, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Sonny Gray of the St. Louis Cardinals, who tied on 201. Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox led the majors with 255, fourteen more than Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers on 241. Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants led the National League with 224, and all twelve pitchers in the chart passed 200.

How the data is collected. Season pitching lines come from MLB's official Stats API, which lists 873 pitchers who appeared in a major league game in 2025. The ranking uses the strikeout column for all of them, not only the pitchers who threw enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. The American League leader, Crochet, and the National League leader, Webb, match the leader tables on Wikipedia's page for the season.

Background. In MLB's definition a strikeout happens when a pitcher throws any combination of three swinging or called strikes to a hitter. A foul ball counts as a strike but cannot be the third one, unless it is a foul tip caught by the catcher. If the catcher fails to hold the third strike the batter may run to first, but the pitcher is still credited with the strikeout. Scorers mark it with a K, and with a backward K when the batter does not swing at strike three.

Limits. A season total rewards innings as well as skill. Webb threw 207 innings, the most of anyone in the chart, while Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates reached 216 strikeouts in 187 2/3. Measured per nine innings, Dylan Cease of the San Diego Padres struck out the most batters, 11.52, reaching his 215 in 168 innings; Crochet (11.18) and Skubal (11.10) were the only others above eleven. Every pitcher in the chart was used only as a starter, with between 30 and 34 starts and no relief appearances.