They didn't give him away for free. They received allocation money, freed up a ton of capspace and thought they were getting a highly rated prospect. That is actually a fairly high price for a player in MLS. That the prospect turned out to be a bust should not reflect on their view of the deal at that time. There are many people in Houston who would go back on this deal in a heartbeat even though Houston got a nice chunk of change. What you are doing is attempting to rewrite history.
And how many "3 team deals" have you seen in MLS? This isn't the NBA Vic.