Question about labrum injury

Small tears do not always require surgery.  He may need some extensive rehab.

Be honest with his injury those who are recruiting your son as well.

That small tear may affect his pitching but not his OF position or at bat.

Keep us informed. Best of luck!

(1) On the front end, make certain that you consult with an orthopedic surgeon who has had extensive experience working with pitchers requiring labrum surgery.

(2) Once rehabilitation begins, do so with the ongoing oversight of a physical therapist who is experienced in working with labrum rehabilitation cases.

(3) ABOVE ALL ELSE, DO NOT RUSH THE REHABILITATION PERIOD.

A baseball player has nothing if not his health. From the sport's perspective, nothing else is important at this point other than his recovery.

An update---We met with Ortho yesterday and plan to do arthroscopic surgery next week. He told us there is a chance that all they need to do is a debridement --cleaning up the fraying, as opposed to attaching the labrum with an anchor. He told us the recovery times before he can start throwing for the different procedures are vastly different --6 weeks for a debridement, 5 months for attaching the tear (we knew about the 5 months)

Anyone have experience with the debridement procedure?

In 2009 my son had a procedure to clean up fraying and for the ortho to go in to see what was causing pain. 

Cleaned up the frays, but actually never saw what was causing it.  It was an impingement (cortacoid). A year later he had to have surgery to fix the impingement.

Make sure that if they do this procedure they actually look around to see what is causing the fraying, or caused the tear (unless a definite injury).

Keep in mind that physical therapy is very important in either case.

Best of luck.

Shoulder MRI's are notoriously inaccurate.  Most orthopedics diagnose the problem more on symptoms than MRI.  My son had 2 MRI's before being scope.  One, done in the team doctor's office, was "interpreted" as showing a number of little issues throughout the shoulder.  (MRI's in doctors offices are often not as good as those at a hospital are radiology center).  The other, done at a radiology center, was "interpreted" as posterior fraying.  Posterior issues are generally much less severe than superior (SLAP tears) issues.  Most of the time you are fraying, and possibly some minor rotator cuff damage which occurred during the impingement.

BUT, because the shoulder is such a hard joint to image, they never really know until they get in there.

During surgery, son was discovered to have fraying and minor cuff issues.  Surgery was quick and easy.  This was in early July.  I think he started light throwing in September.  He was cleared to practice in January, and to pitch in games when the college season opened in February.  HOWEVER, it still took another 2-3 months for him to regain his velocity.  

Everybody is different.  Hard to tell exactly when he will be fully recovered.  But, at least it doesn't sound like he has a SLAP tear.  GOOD LUCK!