Well, I am certainly surprised by all of that! I know they weren't comfortable/confident making moves like these until Robertson and Alvarado were fully in the mix, and also that neither of these guys had trade value (unlike Soto and Dominguez last year). Plus Robert was injured. But it seems like they were just spinning their wheels with them for all of August (albeit without it costing them any games). And now it definitively closes the book on the fact that they could have kept Estevez for less than they paid Romano and Ross, albeit not just for one year.
It's a favor to Ross really, he actually can and probably will sign with a new team and be playoff-eligible. Whether they didn't care to do Romano the same courtesy, actually do think he can make one last attempt to fix something or just like the guy, who knows?
