Consider:

plt.plot(10001 + np.arange(10), 10001 + np.arange(10))
plt.setp(plt.gca().get_yticklabels(), visible=False)
plt.show()

The x axis is labeled 0..9 + 1.0001e4. I'd suggest changing this to 1..10 + 1.0000e4, which is IMO much more legible.

The y axis doesn't show the tick labels, as expected, but the offset indicator ("+1.0001e4") is still there. setp(get_{x,y}ticklabels(), visible=False) is certainly a commonly used approach (e.g. by SubplotBase.label_outer()).
What I believe the correct solution, which is also set offsetText (which can be obtained by get_offset_text()) to invisible, is a bit obscure (and not mentioned in the docs).