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Strikeouts are an important statistic for pitchers. They often rely on their defense to make plays behind them and that can either be advantageous or disadvantageous. If they play in front of a poor defense, their performance and overall numbers might suffer.
Strikeouts are a pitcher's way of taking things completely into their own hands. The defense doesn't really have to make a play (unless there's a wild pitch strikeout) when the pitcher doesn't allow the batter to make contact.
As a result, the pitcher with the most strikeouts in a season probably had a pretty strong year. Being ahead of the pack in the modern game is more difficult than in the past since there are so many elite pitchers working today.
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New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole had the highest number of strikeouts this past season with 257. Even though he had a bit of an uncharacteristic season, he racked up a lot of strikeouts. His ERA was curiously high at a clip over 3.50, but he dominated the strike zone.
That broke the New York Yankees' single-season record, which was long held by Ron Guidry.
The rest of MLB's strikeout leaders
Here's how the leaderboard looked following the final MLB game of the regular season.
- Gerrit Cole - 257
- Corbin Burnes - 243
- Carlos Rodon - 237
- Aaron Nola - 235
- Dylan Cease - 227
- Shohei Ohtani - 219
- Robbie Ray - 212
- Sandy Alcantara - 207
- Kevin Gausman - 205
- Charlie Morton - 205
Cole's total is the most in a regular season since he posted an astonishing 326 strikeouts in 2019 with the Houston Astros.
What is Gerrit Cole's contract?
The Yankees brought Cole in to do exactly what he did last season: strike everyone out. He is one of the game's best pitchers and while he hasn't been as efficient as they might have hoped, he's still among the league's best.
His contract, which was signed in 2020, was for nine years and $324 million. It made him the highest-earning pitcher of all time. However, since he signed that deal, Max Scherzer signed a deal for $43 million a year, which exceed's Cole's $36 million annually.
