MLB’s strikeout record is in danger. The All-Stars whiffing their way toward it don’t care.

Former major leaguer Mark Reynolds when he played for the Baltimore Orioles (2011 and 2012). The league record for strikeouts in a season, 223, set by Reynolds in 2009 when he was with the Arizona Diamondbacks, still stands. (Wikimedia Commons/Keith Allison; httpscreativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en)

By SAM BLUM / THE ATHLETIC

Anger and frustration seemed to emanate from Mark Reynolds every time he was asked about his strikeout total during the 2009 season. He had set the MLB record the year before with 204 strikeouts, and when he shattered it easily again, there were questions.

“I don’t care,” he said that September, then started ignoring inquiries about it. Today, he chalks up his attitude to a sense of shame.

“When I set the record, it was embarrassing,” he said this month. “I didn’t want to talk to reporters about it.”

The record he set that season, 223 strikeouts, still stands. Players have come close to surpassing him. Eight have gotten within 10 strikeouts since that fateful season. One player, Adam Dunn, got within one. Two players got within two. No one, however, has topped Reynolds, who retired in 2019 and now champions the mark as his baseball legacy.

“That’s a badge of honor, man,” Reynolds said. “I’ve got a big league record.”

What changed?

“Now, I’m older, have perspective,” he said. “People ask me, ‘Do you want someone to break it?’ I’m like: ‘No. How many big league records do you have?’”

Reynolds’ record is once again relevant because his small slice of baseball history is at grave risk: Four players are roughly on a pace to surpass him.

The Philadelphia Phillies’ designated hitter, Kyle Schwarber, leads the group, with 144 in just 93 games. Three others — Los Angeles Angels shortstop Zach Neto (133), A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz (130) and Washington Nationals right fielder James Wood (129) — all have a shot at eclipsing 223.

But the perception of the strikeout is not the same today as it was in Reynolds’ time. Strikeouts are far more common across baseball, and hitters have come to see them as the cost of doing business in an era when pitchers throw harder and spin the ball more than ever.

“I’m not anxious about it. I mean, it is what it is,” Schwarber said of the record. “There’s a lot of other good things that I’ve done. I hate the perception of, ‘You sell out for this, you sell out for that.’ That’s just like the farthest thing from the truth.

“We’re hitters at the end of the day. And we want to be good professional hitters. Average is just as important as homers. And RBI are just as important as any other stat, too, right?”

The odd part, as Schwarber suggests, is that the race to this unenviable crown is being waged by very productive hitters. Three of the four were named to the All-Star Game. And Neto, the lone non-All-Star, has 41 extra-base hits and 2.5 wins above replacement, as calculated by Baseball Reference, this year.

This was true in Reynolds’ time as well. His 2009 season was not just a record-breaking strikeout campaign — it was also the best season of his 13-year career. He hit 44 homers, posted an .892 on-base plus slugging percentage and earned his only votes for the Most Valuable Player Award.

After all, no one gets the chance to strike out that much without doing well in the other plate appearances.

Wood even said he came across an Instagram post that showed the strikeout leader for every position. Seeing the names, he concluded, the lineup would be World Series caliber.

“I think the guys who are doing the most damage get pitched to a lot more carefully; they get less pitches to hit,” Wood said. “There’s two sides to it. There’s how the pitchers are pitching guys, where you’ve got to be really disciplined and not chasing. Also just trying to do damage. You obviously sacrifice a little bit of contact trying for more damage.”

In 1975, the league strikeout rate was 12.9%, and it gradually climbed nearly every year. By 1995, it was 16.2%. In Reynolds’ record season, it was 18%, and it sits around 22% today. Increased velocity and movement, a prioritization on hitting home runs and hitting for power, and more pitching data available are all contributing factors to the rise in strikeouts.

“The balls are starting to move way more than they used to,” Neto said. “It’s tough. Pitchers know how to throw a strike-to-ball pitch, or ball-to-strike pitch. It’s just tough. This league’s tough.

“I don’t pay attention to those numbers because they’re going to happen. It’s just a matter of how you bounce back after that. I don’t want to let it be a snowball effect.”

Neto is on a pace to strike out 222 times this season. His candidacy for the record will come down to the wire. Same goes for Wood, who is on a pace for 215 after cutting down on his strikeouts recently; his bid for history came up short last season, when he finished with 221, the third most ever. Kurtz is on a 219-strikeout pace.

Schwarber, however, sits first on the leaderboard. More than halfway through this season, he is on a pace for 240 strikeouts. If anyone is going to take the crown, at least as of now, it’s him.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Schwarber said. “It really is. It’s frustrating. And it’s funny.”

He added: “The game’s changed so much even from when I came into the big leagues in 2015. It was easier to touch the ball, you know? It was easier to not strike out as much.”

The history of this record reflects the evolution of overall strikeout tendencies, with multiple players holding the record for decades.

Four players have held the strikeout record for longer than Reynolds. Sam Wise’s 104 strikeouts for the 1884 Boston Beaneaters hung around for 20 years. Jake Stahl struck out 128 times in 1910, a record that stood for 28 years, before Vince DiMaggio struck out 134 times, a record for 18 years.

Bobby Bonds was the strikeout king for 34 years, striking out 189 times in 1970; seven players had at least that many in 2025.

“Vince is the only player I know who could strike out three times in one game and not be embarrassed,” Casey Stengel, who managed him during that whiff-filled 1938 season with the Boston Bees, once said. “He’d walk into the clubhouse whistling. Everybody would be feeling sorry for him, but Vince always thought he was doing good.”

DiMaggio’s easy embrace of his strikeouts was more of an acquired skill for Reynolds, who needed the passage of time to come to terms with his record. But he understands that it may not be his for much longer — it will fall this season, or maybe next, or the year after that. The game, he conceded, has evolved to be more accepting of players with his offensive profile.

He wishes he was more of a complete hitter, of course. Perhaps a better eye or penchant for contact would have turned Reynolds, who hit 298 MLB homers, into a perennial All-Star.

But now, with only time to reflect, he is at peace with the ballplayer he was, and would welcome celebrating another just like him.

He said he should present a strikeout award to the player who breaks his record on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

“It’s eventually going to happen at some point,” he continued. “But as of right now, today, I’m still the strikeout king.”