The Major League Baseball Players Assn. has...

The Major League Baseball Players Assn. has proposed punitive damages if an arbitrator finds that baseball’s club owners acted in collusion against 1986 free agents.

The remedies are contained in the legal brief the association submitted earlier this month to the arbitrator, Thomas Roberts, the New York Times reported in its Tuesday editions.

Roberts, who is expected to rule in the case early next month, has received briefs from the players’ union and the Player Relations Committee, the owners’ labor arm.

The players’ union said in its brief that if Roberts finds that the owners acted in collusion, that those players be permitted to void their contracts, pursue individual damages, receive the difference between “contract price and market price” and be awarded punitive damages.

The union, in a hearing that dragged on for 11 months, charged that the owners had violated the labor agreement by acting in concert against the players who were free agents after the 1985 season. The group included Kirk Gibson, Donnie Moore, Carlton Fisk, Butch Wynegar and Niekro brothers, Phil and Joe.

The owners denied that a conspiracy existed, saying they had exercised fiscal responsibility in not pursuing free agents.