Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately.

This quote, attributed to Henry Kissinger, feels particularly relevant to Friday's Florida State baseball development.

It was hard to deny that FSU baseball coach Mike Martin Jr. was going to enter the 2023 season, the final year of his original contract, on a pretty hot seat. It felt like he was going to be a bit of a dead man walking pending some massive improvements.

But just about everybody thought he was going to get that final year.

To the contrary, FSU announced Friday afternoon that Martin had been relieved of his duties and a search for his replacement was underway.

Original story on Martin being let go: Florida State baseball coach Mike Martin Jr. fired, search for his replacement underway

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Reactions to Martin Jr.'s dismissal: National reaction to Florida State firing head baseball coach Mike Martin Jr.

The news definitely came as a bit of a shock. Yes, Martin had failed to meet the program's lofty expectations. Yes, his career .588 winning percentage is the worst by a head coach in program history.

All that said, he guided the Seminoles to NCAA Tournaments in each of his two full seasons. The program may have not have been gaining ground back toward what it once was, but it wasn't in a freefall either.

It seems clear, though, that FSU athletic director Michael Alford didn't think one more year would change anything for Martin. And if that's the case, it was time for him to make the move he did.

I understand this may not be a popular sentiment among the FSU fanbase at the moment, but I can't help but feel a bit bad for Martin right now.

It's hard enough having to follow the winningest coach in college baseball history. That is escalated multifold when said coach is your father.

The program fell off a bit near the end of Mike Martin Sr.'s tenure, and Martin Jr. wasn't able to reclaim that former glory.

The fact that other schools assumed he was going to replace his father upon his retirement denied him the opportunity to get some previous head coaching experience elsewhere, something that could have been very valuable.

The fact that a large segment of the FSU fanbase was convinced he was going to fail from the very start of his tenure definitely didn't help matters. Neither did the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down his first season as head coach.

But it's impossible to deny that he also didn't help matters himself.

The sweeping changes he discussed in offensive approach were all for the worst. Strikeouts were way up, walks were way down and FSU's power numbers, especially this past season, didn't come close to making up that difference.

Considering Martin was FSU's primary hitting coach, that reflects on him.

It's unclear exactly how much of this trickled up to Alford, but the fact that there's been no visible support from FSU players for their dismissed coach on social media doesn't exactly help his cause either.

If Martin had gotten the chance to coach the final year of his contract in 2023, it's likely no real damage would have been done. However, the Seminoles were a fundamentally unsound team on the bases, in the field and just about every area that matters, and it seems clear Alford had seen enough.

Because the truth of the matter is, just making the NCAA Tournament isn't the FSU baseball standard. The Seminoles may not have that elusive NCAA Championship (insert joke from rival fanbases here), but that's about all FSU hasn't accomplished.

FSU's 3,001 all-time wins are the fifth-most in college baseball history, ahead of and contending with a number of programs that have played far more than the Seminoles' 75 seasons of existence.

Alford's decision says he isn't expecting that standard to change and won't settle for less.

He means business. And that applies probably across all of FSU's athletic teams.

Reach Curt Weiler at cweiler@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @CurtMWeiler.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Martin Jr.'s self-inflicted issues brought FSU tenure to a sad end | Weiler