Philadelphia Phillies DH Kyle Schwarber and Chicago White Sox shortstop Colson Montgomery are nearing some dubious baseball history.
Schwarber and Montgomery each have 216 strikeouts entering the final week of the season, endangering Mark Reynolds’ all-time record of 223 strikeouts set in 2009.
Yet, it hardly bothers them.
“Guys who strike out a lot," Montgomery told reporters, “you see them, but what do they also do? They hit a lot of homers and drive a lot of guys in.”
Montgomery has 31 homers and 87 RBIs. Schwarber has 45 homers and 95 RBIs.
It's Montgomery's first 200-strikeout season but the third for Schwarber – who broke his career high of 215, set in 2023.
Both
sluggers' teams have everything to play for in the days to come with the Phillies fighting for positioning in the NL wild card and the White Sox trading blows with the Cleveland Guardians for the AL Central crown, meaning they'll both see a regular number of at-bats.
Most strikeouts in a season
- 1. Mark Reynolds (2009) – 223 SO
- 2. Adam Dunn (2012) – 222 SO
- 3. James Wood (2025) – 221 SO
- 4. Chris Davis (2016) – 219 SO
- 5. Elly De La Cruz (2024) – 218 SO
- 6. Yoán Moncada (2018) – 217 SO
- 7. Kyle Schwarber (2026) – 216 SO
- – Colson Montgomery (2026) – 216 SO
- 9. Kyle Schwarber (2023) – 215 SO
- 10. Eugenio Suárez (2023) – 214 SO
- 11. Joey Gallo (2021) – 213 SO
- 12. Chris Carter (2013) – 212 SO
- 13. Teoscar Hernández (2023) – 211 SO
- – Mark Reynolds (2010) – 211 SO
- – Giancarlo Stanton (2018) – 211 SO
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: These MLB sluggers are chasing an ugly record. Will history be made this week?
