Red Sox shorstop Xander Bogaert is now a free agent after opting out of the final three years of his contract. Michael Dwyer/Associated Press

Xander Bogaerts made perhaps the easiest decision of his career on Monday afternoon, when he officially opted out of his team-friendly contract with the Red Sox to become a free agent for the first time.

Bogaerts, 30, has been the most productive offensive shortstop in baseball for the last five years. Since 2018, his .880 OPS is clear and away the best among qualified MLB shortstops, while he was also a Gold Glove finalist this year for his consistent work on defense.

The Red Sox had been enjoying his services at $20 million a year, at least 30% less than what other top-tier shortstops are paid, but Bogaerts swiftly opted out of the remaining three years, $60 million on Monday.

The Sox had said all along they were hopeful they’d be able to extend Bogaerts before he reached free agency, but it never seemed likely.

Bogaerts offered Red Sox fans a loving embrace on the final day of the 2022 season, when he was pulled to a standing ovation and blew the fans kisses on his way into the dugout.

An emotional Bogaerts said afterwards, “It’s a tough situation for me because this is all I know. Obviously this place has given me so much, but obviously I’m in a different place now than I was when I was younger. I’ve grown so much. I’ve learned so much. That came with experience by seeing a lot of stuff with my teammates and being around the game in general, knowing your abilities, knowing what you’re capable of.”

Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom said that extending Bogaerts would be the Sox’ first order of business this offseason, though they came up short before the deadline and Bogaerts is now eligible to sign with any club.

The Sox are expected to make him a qualifying offer worth $19.65 million for 2023. Bogaerts will obviously reject that, which would give the Sox draft pick compensation should he sign with another club.

The franchise’s all-time leader at games played at shortstop, Bogaerts walks into free agency with a career .292 average and .814 OPS to go with four All-Star selections, four Silver Sluggers and two World Series rings.

AWARDS: Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and Yordan Alvarez are the finalists for American League MVP in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

St. Louis Cardinals teammates Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt remain contenders for NL MVP, along with San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado.

The BBWAA also revealed finalists for the Cy Young Awards, Rookies of the Year and Managers of the Year. Balloting was conducted at the conclusion of the regular season, and winners will be announced next week.

Justin Verlander of the World Series champion Houston Astros is a heavy favorite to win his third Cy Young Award after the 39-year-old ace went 18-4 with a major league-low 1.75 ERA this season in a marvelous comeback from Tommy John surgery.

Dylan Cease of the Chicago White Sox and Alek Manoah of the Toronto Blue Jays are the other AL Cy Young finalists.

Miami ace Sandy Alcantara, Atlanta left-hander Max Fried and Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Julio Urias are the top three vote-getters for the NL Cy Young Award.

Seattle center fielder Julio Rodriguez is expected to win a crowded AL Rookie of the Year race that also includes Cleveland left fielder Steven Kwan and Baltimore catcher Adley Rutschman.

Notably absent from the trio of finalists was Houston shortstop Jeremy Pena, a breakout star in the postseason following his solid regular season.

Pena, a former UMaine player who won a Gold Glove last week, was the World Series MVP against Philadelphia and the AL Championship Series MVP versus the Yankees. He became the first hitter to take those three prizes in an entire career, according to OptaSTATS – doing it all in his rookie season.

Cardinals utilityman Brendan Donovan joined Atlanta Braves center fielder Michael Harris II and pitcher Spencer Strider in the top three for NL Rookie of the Year.

Cleveland’s Terry Francona, Baltimore’s Brandon Hyde and Seattle’s Scott Servais are in the running for AL Manager of the Year.

In the National League, it’s Dave Roberts from the 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers, first-year New York Mets skipper Buck Showalter, and Brian Snitker of the NL East champion Braves.

Showalter is trying to join Hall of Famers Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa as the only managers to win the award four times.

Rob Thomson didn’t make the cut after taking over the NL champion Phillies when Joe Girardi was fired in early June and guiding them to their first playoff berth in 11 years.

Philadelphia was 22-29 when Thomson was promoted from bench coach to interim manager, and the Phillies went 65-46 the rest of the regular season. He was rewarded with a two-year contract last month.

YANKEES: New York exercised Luis Severino’s $15 million option for 2023.

The right-hander, who turns 29 in February, was 7-3 with a 3.18 ERA in 19 starts this season and 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA in a pair of postseason starts. He was sidelined between July 31 and Sept. 21 by a strained right latissimus dorsi muscle.

This was Severino’s first extensive season since 2018, when he made the AL All-Star team for the second straight season. He was limited by shoulder inflammation and a strained lat muscle to three late-September starts in 2019, then had Tommy John surgery on Feb. 27, 2020, and made just four late-season relief appearances in 2021.

Severino agreed in February 2019 to a $40 million, four-year contract that included the option, which had a $2.75 million buyout. The deal will now be worth $52.5 million over five seasons.

He is 50-29 with a 3.39 ERA in seven major league seasons, striking out 709 in 638 innings.

HALL OF FAME: Steroids-tainted stars Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Rafael Palmeiro are on the eight-man ballot for the Hall of Fame’s contemporary baseball era committee, which meets Dec. 4 in San Diego.

Albert Belle, Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, Dale Murphy and Curt Schilling also are on the ballot announced Monday for the 16-member committee, which considers candidates whose careers were primarily from 1980 on. A candidate needs 75% to be elected and anyone who does will be inducted on July 23, along with anyone chosen in the Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote, announced on Jan. 24.

Bonds, Clemens and Schilling fell short in January in their 10th and final appearances on the BBWAA ballot. Bonds received 260 of 394 votes (66%), Clemens 257 (65.2%) and Schilling 231 (58.6%).

Palmeiro was dropped from the BBWAA ballot after receiving 25 votes (4.4%) in his fourth appearance in 2014, falling below the 5% minimum needed to stay on. His high was 72 votes (12.6%) in 2012.

WHITE SOX: Chicago picked up Tim Anderson’s $12.5 million option for the 2023 season and declined their $5.5 million option on infielder Josh Harrison.

Harrison is owed a $1.5 million buyout and becomes a free agent.

The 29-year-old Anderson hit .301 with six homers, 25 RBI and 13 steals in 79 games in his seventh big league season. He was the starting shortstop for the American League in the All-Star Game in July.

DRAFT: As soon as general managers started arriving in Las Vegas for their annual meetings, Major League Baseball set some odds – for its first amateur draft lottery.

MLB said the lottery will take place on Dec. 6 at the winter meetings in San Diego, determining the top six picks next summer.

Under the agreement in March that ended the 99-day lockout, the lottery includes teams that failed to reach the postseason and didn’t forfeit their first-round pick, such as for signing a qualified free agent.

Washington, Oakland and Pittsburgh, which each lost 100 or more games, have the best odds of getting the top pick at 16.5%. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati both went 62-100 but the Pirates were slotted third because they had a worse record that the Reds in 2021.

The players’ association pushed for the lottery to discourage teams from trying to get the top pick. The Houston Astros lost 324 games from 2011-13, earning the top pick in three straight years, and went 70-92 in 2014, part of a rebuilding that led to four World Series appearances from 2017-22, including titles in 2017 and this year.

TWINS: Shortstop Carlos Correa formally opted out of his contract to become a free agent, the MLB Players’ Association announced.

Correa was one of nine major leaguers who exercised options to join the pool of players eligible to sign this offseason with any team.

The decision was widely expected since the day Correa surprised the baseball world by signing with the Twins coming out of the lockout, in lieu of the longer-term deal he’d been seeking. Correa made $35.1 million in 2022, the highest annual average salary for an infielder in Major League Baseball history.

The Twins also announced they will decline contract options on starting pitchers Chris Archer ($10 million) and Dylan Bundy ($11 million) and first baseman Miguel Sano ($14 million). They have the following buyouts: $750,000 for Archer, $1 million for Bundy and $2.75 million for Sano.

Right-hander Sonny Gray will be back in Minnesota’s rotation. His $12.7 million option was exercised Monday – his 33rd birthday – for 2023. Gray had a 3.08 ERA in 24 starts after arriving in a trade with Cincinnati that sent 2021 first-round draft pick Chase Petty to the Reds. Gray had 117 strikeouts in 119 2/3 innings.

Joining Correa, Archer, Bundy and Sano on the open market after the expiration of their contracts with the Twins are relief pitcher Michael Fulmer, outfielder Billy Hamilton, catchers Sandy Leon and Gary Sanchez and starting pitcher Aaron Sanchez.

ROCKIES: The Colorado Rockies have brought in Hensley Meulens to serve as hitting coach after back-to-back subpar seasons at the plate.

Meulens was an assistant hitting coach for the New York Yankees in 2022. He will be counted on to revamp a Rockies lineup that hit .254 last season, the second-lowest mark behind only the 2021 squad (.249). Meulens takes over for Dave Magadan.

In addition, the Rockies announced they added Warren Schaeffer to the coaching staff as the third base/infield coach. Schaeffer served as the manager of the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes from 2020-22, along with being the team’s third-base coach and infield instructor. Schaeffer steps in for Stu Cole.

Meulens was part of the San Francisco Giants when they won three World Series titles, serving as hitting coach (2010-17) and bench coach (2018-19). He became the bench coach for the New York Mets in 2020.

ASTROS: An estimated crowd of more than 1 million fans celebrated the Houston Astros’ World Series win with a downtown parade.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner had encouraged fans coming to the victory parade to “arrive early, wear Astros’ colors, be loud and celebrate safely.” The parade, which started at noon and lasted for a couple of hours, packed sidewalks with people as Astros players riding floats and buses waved at cheering fans.

The parade took place without any serious incidents, except for the arrest of a 33-year-old man who was accused by Houston police of throwing a beer can at U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who was riding in the back of a truck that was part of the parade. Police said the beer can hit the Republican senator from Texas in the chest and neck area but he did not require any medical attention. The man was arrested by police but his name was not immediately released. He is expected to face assault charges, police said.

Video from the parade showed people along the route booing Cruz as he went by, including just before he was hit by the beer can.

Although a final tally of the number of people at the parade was not immediately available, it was expected to surpass the 1 million individuals who attended the parade held after the Astros won their first World Series in 2017, said Mary Benton, a spokeswoman for Turner.