diff --git a/scripts/release-manager/cli.js b/scripts/release-manager/cli.js
index 8eb8a98aa9..04207325a4 100755
--- a/scripts/release-manager/cli.js
+++ b/scripts/release-manager/cli.js
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ function gitCherryPickMerge(sha) {
   }
 }
 
+function getReactVersion() {
+  return (JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(path.join(PATH_TO_REPO, 'package.json'), 'utf8'))).version;
+}
+
 const app = {
   vorpal,
 
@@ -93,6 +97,7 @@ const app = {
     this.writeTo = writeTo;
     this.execInRepo = execInRepo;
     this.gitCherryPickMerge = gitCherryPickMerge;
+    this.getReactVersion = getReactVersion;
 
     // Register commands
     [
diff --git a/scripts/release-manager/commands/version.js b/scripts/release-manager/commands/version.js
index 7f2934e647..8f4f9b34ac 100644
--- a/scripts/release-manager/commands/version.js
+++ b/scripts/release-manager/commands/version.js
@@ -47,11 +47,8 @@ module.exports = function(vorpal, app) {
     .command('version')
     .description('Update the version of React, useful while publishing')
     .action(function (args, actionCB) {
-      const PATH_TO_PACKAGE = path.join(app.PATH_TO_REPO, 'package.json');
 
-      let packageJSON = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(PATH_TO_PACKAGE, 'utf8'));
-
-      let currentVersion = packageJSON.version;
+      let currentVersion = app.getReactVersion()
 
       // TODO: See if we can do a better job for handling pre* bumps. The ones
       // semver adds are of the form -0, but we've used -alpha.0 or -rc.0.