It's never fun to report on a player retireing prematurely due to an injury. That's only magnified when you're tasked with looking at it from a fantasy perspective. This is someone's life. His career. Who really cares about the fake baseball world? A game?

Well, the reports that came out Tuesday indicating that Texas Rangers first baseman Prince Fielder will hang up his cleats due to a neck injury he suffered last month is not the news we want to focus on. I think we can all be in agreement on that. 

It, however, does have a direct impact on the world of fantasy baseball. 

With Fielder now calling it quits following a stellar career that saw him hit 319 homers while driving in 1,000-plus runs en route to six All-Star game appearances, youngster Joey Gallo has full reign over the first base position moving forward. 

Gallo, 22, has long been considered the Rangers' top prospect. Though, his ability to make an impact in the majors has been impacted by Fielder's expensive presence on the Rangers. 

Gallo saw action late last month when Fielder initially went down to injury. He responded by hitting .067 with nine strikeouts in 15 at-bats. He was optioned back to the minors when Texas acquired both Carlos Beltran and Jonathan Lucroy during the trade deadline. 

Though, there's definitely reason to believe Gallo will be back up in the majors at some point soon. He's hitting .254 with 21 homers and 53 RBI in Triple-A this season. The primary issue here remains a relatively lofty strikeout rate that stands at over 33 percent on the season. If Gallo is somehow able to improve that, he should be a long-term answer for the Rangers at first moving forward. 

Fielder's retirement impacts Gallo from a dynasty fantasy perspective. There's now nothing in his way outside of his own performance to keep Gallo from being an every-day player in the Majors.