The precise removal of introns is essential for cell survival. To promote fidelity in nuclear pre‐‐mRNA splicing, the spliceosome rejects and discards suboptimal splicing substrates that have engaged the spliceosome. Although these discarded splicing substrates can be degraded in the nucleus, discarded splicing species, the 5′ exon and lariat intermediate, can be exported to the cytoplasm, as the discarded species can be translated and degraded by cytoplasmic nucleases. However, it is unknown how these suboptimal intermediates are exported.Here, we used single molecule RNA‐FISH in budding yeast to provide direct evidence that cells export suboptimal splicing intermediates, both the 5′ exon and lariat intermediate. We observed that the export of suboptimal splicing intermediates requires the nuclear basket and the general mRNA export receptor Mex67. Further, we found that two essential Mex67 adaptors, Yra1 and Nab2, are required for exporting suboptimal lariat intermediates, demonstrating that both mRNAs and lariat intermediates undergo a similar process to assemble export machinery. Surprisingly, we discovered that the export of lariat intermediates requires Mlp1, a factor implicated in retaining unspliced pre‐‐mRNA in the nucleus of budding yeast. Importantly, Mlp1 promoted the export of lariat intermediates through its interaction with Nab2. Together, our findings establish the importance of the mRNA export pathway in exporting discarded splicing intermediates and implicate a dual role for Mlp1 in not only retaining unspliced transcripts but also exporting partially spliced transcripts. We propose that this dual role of Mlp1 reflects a function in docking mRNAs at the nuclear basket during export.Support or Funding InformationNIH