Prodigious: Clayton Kershaw enters the 3,000 strikeouts club

Enrique RojasJul 2, 2025, 23:31
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Clayton Kershaw became the Pitcher number 20 in MLB that conquers the feat of accumulating 3,000 or darger stories

The legendary left -hander of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw, became Wednesday the twentieth pitcher who accumulates more than three thousand strikeouts in the big leagues (MLB) of the United States baseball.

Kershaw achieved the feat against the Chicago White Sox in his pitching number 100 and last night against Vinny Capra, at the Dodger Stadium, the same place where he felt like the first batter he faced in his career –Skumaker skipof the St. Louis Cardinals– on May 25, 2008.

Kershaw is the third active pitcher of the 3 thousand strikeouts club and the first from the Max Scherzer, who entered on September 12, 2021. The right Eleventh, with 3,419.

Among the 20 storing pipers in history, only four (Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Steve Carlton) exceeded the 4,000 strikeouts mark, Ryan being the only one with more than 5,000.

However, Kershaw (2.51) is the pitcher with the lowest average of clean races among all pitchers with three thousand or more fanned since the clean race was created as official statistics in 1913.

In fact, of the group, only Kershaw, Tom Seaver (2.86), Bob Gibson (2.91) and the Dominican Pedro Martínez (2.93) exhibit an effectiveness below the three clean races for every nine entries. The great Walter Johnson Farnic 3,509 and had an effectiveness of 2.17, but his 21 -year -old career began in 1907.

Kershaw has been built a file for the future of the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, but kneading three thousand strikeouts surely enlarges its probabilities. Not including Scherzer and Verlander assets, only Clemens and Curt Schilling They entered and left the writers’ ballot without being approved for the niche of the immortals.

The 37 -year -old pitcher is a winner of three Cy Young awards and a more valuable player trophy in 18 seasons, always with the Dodgers flannel. Only two other players, the gardener Zack Wheat and the torpedo Bill RussellThey played so much time with the Dodgers.

Kershaw has a 216-94 mark with 25 full, 15 bleached games and 9.7 strikeouts per nine entries in 440 appearances, all except three, as a starter. Kershaw has been summoned to 10 editions of the Star Game, conquered five effectiveness leaders and helped Los Angeles win the World Series in 2020 and 2024.

And now who follows?

Kershaw could be one of the last pitchers with three thousand strikeouts, now that in the big leagues the trend is to limit the workload of the monticulists every day.

In the leadership of active struggles they follow Kershaw, the left -hander of the Atlanta Braves, Chris Sale (2,528), and the rights Gerrit Cole (2,251), of the New York Yankees; Charlie Morton (2,124), of the Baltimore Orioles, and the Japanese Yu Darvish (2,007), of the San Diego Padres.

Darvish, who will turn 39 in August, is under contract with San Diego until the 2028 season, but only made 16 departures in 2024 and has not yet debuted in 2025, which quite reduces his probabilities. Morton, 41, has struggled to 77, but has an effectiveness of 5.63 in 72.0 entries while approaching the inevitable retirement.

Cole, who will be 35 in 2026, when he will return from the rehabilitation of his operated elbow, is still three more years old in his current contract, but will need a Verlander type return, who has struggled about 500 batters since his elbow was operated in 2021, at 38.

And then we have Sale, the winner of the Cy Young award of the National League last year. The 36 -year -old left -hander has struck 11.4 batters for nine entries in the last two seasons and, most likely, will close the year with more than 2,600 k in his career. But it is currently the list of injured and, as we know, the pitchers do not usually improve after 35 years.

Horses as the rights Kevin Gausman (34 years and 1,855 k), of the Toronto Blue Jays; Zack Wheeler (35 years and 1,761 k), of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Jacob Degrom (37 years and 1,760 k), of the Texas Rangers, are far from the three thousand strikeouts, when they are already in quite advanced sections of their careers.

Looking further, an ideal candidate would be the right of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Paul Skenes, who has struck 280 rivals in his first 239.0 tickets (10.5 for 9ip) and has just turned 23.

Assuming that Skenes can maintain the pace of achieving at least 170 strikeouts (at 133.0 innings) he had in 2024, he would take another 16 seasons reaching 3,000 strikeouts in his career and would join the club near the recess of the 2041 stars game.

In the era of expansion (since 1961), there are only three pitchers with at least 16 seasons of 170 strikeouts: Ryan (19), Randy Johnson (16) and Clemens (16). Nothing easy.