Cha-Ching.

That sound, originating this week from Nashville, has been resonating across this great land of ours because a lot of money is burning a hole in a lot of owner pockets.

It’s the baseball winter meetings. Tough economy? Fiscal cliffs? Not here.

MLB general managers are making it rain and marginal free agents are reaping the benefits.

Baseball players throughout history have been vastly overpaid simply because they are A) available and B) have agents who can deftly spin a .250 average and poor OPS into millions of dollars.

That hasn’t changed.

These winter meetings are perhaps a prime example of what happens when teams are flush with greenbacks with the frugality of Paris Hilton.

Some of the contracts dolled out are laughable.

The Boston Red Sox, an organization that has never been accused of being smart with a buck, just gave aging Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino $78 million.

Napoli has some pop, but is a career .259 hitter with a minus glove at first base.

Victorino has some speed and is a plus defender, but his bat is seriously slipping.

He’s Mike Cameron light.

Most people figured Victorino would get a one-year deal in the $6-7 million range in a sort of “prove you can still play” kind of deal.

About the only people who like the Victorino deal are Victorino and his agent.

This is a case where the Sox have so much money because of that swindle of a trade they made with the Dodgers last August that the front office had an overwhelming need to spend it ... on anyone with a pulse.

And neither one of them can pitch — Boston’s real bugaboo.

The Red Sox aren’t alone in the overspending.

Even the Pirates, an organization that would try to negotiate a lower price at Dollar General, loosened the purse strings ... for Russell Martin.

The Buccos gave Martin $8.5 million per season to replace Rod Barajas behind the plate.

It could work out. But this is the Pirates we are talking about. The last big free agent contract the club doled out to a New York free agent was Derek Bell.

How did that one work out?

Other preposterous signings:

Jeremy Guthrie and his 4.76 ERA got $25 million over three years from the Royals.

B.J. Upton, who has never seen a curveball he hasn’t liked to swing at and miss, found a bag full of $75 million from the Braves. Merry Christmas.

Bartolo Colon snagged $3 million from the A’s. That’s about $1,000 a pound.

Melky Cabrera, who got caught PEDing and tried to manufacture a lame excuse in the form of a fake internet site still got rewarded by the Blue Jays with a $17 million contract.

It could get worse. Josh Hamilton, Zack Greinke and Nick Swisher are still unsigned.

Cha-Ching.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.