Only Seaver and Walter Johnson have 300 wins, 3,000 strikeouts, and an earned run average under 3.00. Seaver's 16 Opening-Day starts are an MLB record. At the time of his retirement, he was third on MLB's all-time strikeout list (3,640), trailing only his former teammate Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton; he currently ranks sixth all time. Seaver is tied with Ryan for the seventh-most shutouts in MLB history (61). No major league pitcher has matched his feat of striking out ten consecutive batters. He also holds the record for consecutive 200-strikeout seasons with nine (1968–1976). In 1999, Seaver ranked 32nd on "Sporting News" list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, the only player to have spent a majority of his career with the Mets to make the list. In 2016, ESPN.com ranked Seaver 34th on its list of the greatest MLB players, while "The Athletic" ranked him the 41st-greatest player in 2020.