Jsinger,
My son tore his labrum in an acute injury (as opposed to wear and tear) on Jan 30, 2011. He had surgery Feb 22, 2011. Son is an infielder. His ortho is a highly regarded sports medicine surgeon at a teaching hospital in Chicago. From a timing perspective, due to son's place in recruiting timeline, surgeon allowed him to progress at a faster rate than he would an established college athlete - note it was still safe...so here goes from a timing perspective:
Weeks 1 - 6 very limited - shoulder has to heal very limited pendulum swings after week 3. Surgeon said labrum has to heal.
Weeks 8 - 12 - PT with a sports medicine PT who specializes in shoulders. Son was progressed as his ROM and flexibility allowed him to...
He did not PICK UP a baseball for 12 weeks. At 12 weeks he was allowed to start swinging a broomstick with a ping pong ball. He returned to hitting at 14 weeks.
At 12 weeks he started very light throwing - there was a protocol which he followed dutifully...I will also say that even on his not PT days, he would go to the PT center and work the bands and the shaky stick thing (not sure what it's called).
At 16 weeks, he was allowed to return to right side of the infield (2nd base).
At 20 weeks, he returned to the left side of the infield - BUT - being cleared to return and getting velocity back are very different.
At almost 6 months to the day, he felt like his arm was back strength wise.
All this being said - each case is different because of different healing rates, flexibility, etc. I do know that for pitchers this is a much longer process due to strain on arm..not sure about catchers. I will also tell you that at 7 weeks my son wanted to run with his team during pre-game and surgeon would not allow due to jarring motion and potential for non-healing...
Good luck and as everyone has said - it is heartbreaking to suffer an injury that requires surgery. THere is light at the end of the tunnel - it just takes a lot of time.