We didn't trade two of those players, we traded for one of those players and made a bad trade with one of those players, just like we did with Williams. Again, nobody forced us to trade Williams and nobody forced us to trade him for what we got.
The only way the return for Williams made sense is if they weren't going to offer the QO to a reliever but would offer one to a starting pitcher. Of course that also requires the starting pitcher to not suck.