Mets send Nolan McLean to the mound against Nick Lodolo in Cincinnati, 12:40 PM EDT

What happened

Per Yahoo Sports, the New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds have released their lineups for Wednesday's afternoon game at Great American Ball Park, with right-hander Nolan McLean taking the ball for New York against Cincinnati left-hander Nick Lodolo. First pitch is scheduled for 12:40 PM EDT.

Television coverage is on SNY. Radio listeners can find the game on Audacy Mets Radio, WHSQ 880AM, the Audacy App, and 92.3 HD2.

Why it matters

For a Mets club sitting at 74-88 and eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race, Wednesday's matinee in Cincinnati is less about October positioning and more about the kind of organizational accounting that happens when a season has run its course. McLean's start is a chance to log innings, evaluate what the back end of the rotation looks like going forward, and give the front office something to work with as the calendar turns toward the offseason.

That context does not make the game meaningless — baseball has a way of insisting on its own relevance regardless of the standings — but it does reframe what a sharp observer is watching for. McLean is pitching in a situation where the margin for error is low in the standings and the margin for learning is wide. Lodolo, a left-hander who has been a fixture in Cincinnati's rotation, presents a legitimate test for a Mets lineup that carries some recognizable names alongside others who reflect the kind of roster flexibility a club exercises when the standings have already rendered their verdict.

The Mets' batting order, as reported by Yahoo Sports, runs Carson Benge in right field, Bo Bichette at third base, Juan Soto in left, Marcus Semien at second, Mark Vientos at first, Francisco Alvarez as the designated hitter, A.J. Ewing in center, Luis Torrens behind the plate, and Zack Short at shortstop. Against a left-handed starter, the construction of that order — and how the right-handed bats in it handle Lodolo — will be one of the more interesting threads to follow through the afternoon.

Cincinnati is sending out Edwin Arroyo at second base, JJ Bleday in left, Sal Stewart at third, Nathaniel Lowe at first, Eugenio Suarez as the designated hitter, Spencer Steer in right, Noelvi Marte in center, Jose Trevino behind the plate, and Matt McLain at shortstop. It is a full, legitimate major-league lineup, and McLean will need to navigate all nine of them.

Where the club stands

The Mets enter Wednesday at 74-88 (.457), occupying fifth place in the NL East, 20 games back of the division leader. In the Wild Card picture, they rank 10th, sitting 14.0 games relative to the cut line — a figure that, at this point in the season, functions less as a gap to close and more as a final ledger entry on how far the year drifted from its ambitions. New York is also carrying a one-game losing streak into the afternoon.

Eliminated from both the division and Wild Card races, the Mets are playing out the string, which is a phrase that sounds dismissive until you remember that the string still has games in it. Those games carry real weight in ways the standings column does not capture: development time, service time, and the quiet auditions that shape a roster for next spring. A right-hander making a start in a road afternoon game against a legitimate lineup is exactly the kind of low-stakes, high-information situation a front office values when the calendar is winding down.

After Wednesday's game in Cincinnati, the schedule sends New York to Philadelphia for a Thursday matchup at Citizens Bank Park, where Sean Manaea is the probable starter against Aaron Nola. The club returns to Philadelphia again on Saturday, with Freddy Peralta listed as the probable against Cristopher Sánchez. Three games in two cities, none of them with playoff implications, all of them with organizational ones.

What we don't know yet

Yahoo Sports is reporting a lineup card, not a club announcement, and lineups can shift before first pitch for any number of reasons. The report does not provide injury context, recent performance data for either starter, or any explanation for the specific construction of either batting order. Both lineups are best treated as the expected configuration rather than a locked-in certainty until the game actually begins.

It is also worth noting that the confidence level attached to this lineup report, as lineup reports go, leaves some room for late changes. A lineup posted hours before a noon game on a Wednesday in June is a reasonable working document, not a contract.

What to watch

The most operationally interesting thread on Wednesday is McLean himself. Pitching for a team that has been eliminated from postseason contention, on the road, in a day game, he faces a Reds lineup with enough depth and variety to constitute a genuine evaluation. How he sequences through the order, manages left-handed and right-handed bats alike, and holds up through the middle innings will tell the organization something useful about what it has in him as the rotation picture takes shape for next year.

On the other side, Lodolo presents a real challenge for the Mets' order. Left-handed starters have a way of reshaping lineup construction conversations, and the mix of bats New York is deploying — some familiar names, some newer faces getting extended looks — will be tested by a pitcher who has been part of Cincinnati's plans for a reason.

The broader watch item, given where the Mets stand, is simply what the next several weeks of baseball look like for a club that has nothing left to play for in the standings but plenty of organizational questions still to answer. The Philadelphia series looming on the other side of this game adds a different kind of texture — Aaron Nola on Thursday, Cristopher Sánchez on Saturday — and the pitching matchups across those three days will collectively sketch out what the Mets' rotation depth looks like heading into the final stretch of the season.

Wednesday's lineup is one small data point in that larger exercise. A matinee in Cincinnati, 12:40 PM EDT, on SNY. The standings say it does not matter. The front office disagrees.