Don’t sign someone that shaky as a closer. If it turns out he can close, then great, but someone that injury-prone isn’t someone you can rely on for any set position.

that say he will be back for spring training, but in my medical opinion that is total bullcrap. 12-18 months is the recovery time for his surgery, and I would not feel safe putting any innings on him before that time has elapsed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103004416.html

“He has insisted he will be ready by spring training, but complete recovery from such an injury often requires 12-18 months.”

The results are very unpredictable. I can think of three players off the top of my head who had had labrum surgery: Ryan Wagner had it and is detailed in the above article. His surgery was in june of 2007 and he has not made it back to the majors. Freddy Garcia had it in 2007 and he made three starts toward the end of last year, not pitching particularly well, with questionable status for this year as well. Curt Schilling had a similar surgery, although he has had several injuries and it’s had to tell if his problems were even primarily labrum-related (also his labrum injury was probably a different one).

http://www.slate.com/id/2100895/

The main problem is that the labrum is made of connective tissue rather than muscle, and it does not heal well whatsoever. The best way to get past labrum surgery is to give it a lot of time. Cordero does not seem willing to do that.