diff --git a/src/cdk/public_api.ts b/src/cdk/public_api.ts
index 91fb8910ff6b..94446f63d16a 100644
--- a/src/cdk/public_api.ts
+++ b/src/cdk/public_api.ts
@@ -15,3 +15,4 @@ export * from './portal/index';
 export * from './rxjs/index';
 export * from './observe-content/index';
 export * from './keyboard/keycodes';
+export * from './version';
diff --git a/src/cdk/version.ts b/src/cdk/version.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..4defe332aeee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cdk/version.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+import {Version} from '@angular/core';
+
+/** Current version of the Angular Component Development Kit. */
+export const VERSION = new Version('0.0.0-PLACEHOLDER');
diff --git a/src/lib/public_api.ts b/src/lib/public_api.ts
index fbaf29694867..a42ab73d968b 100644
--- a/src/lib/public_api.ts
+++ b/src/lib/public_api.ts
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
  * Entry point for all public APIs of Angular Material.
  */
 
+export * from './version';
 export * from './core';
 export * from './module';
 
diff --git a/src/lib/version.ts b/src/lib/version.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c453475ba706
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/version.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+import {Version} from '@angular/core';
+
+/** Current version of Angular Material. */
+export const VERSION = new Version('0.0.0-PLACEHOLDER');
diff --git a/tools/gulp/packaging/version-placeholders.ts b/tools/gulp/packaging/version-placeholders.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..61d81aa6000e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/gulp/packaging/version-placeholders.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+import {readFileSync, writeFileSync} from 'fs';
+import {buildConfig} from './build-config';
+import {spawnSync} from 'child_process';
+
+/** Variable that is set to the string for version placeholders. */
+const versionPlaceholderText = '0.0.0-PLACEHOLDER';
+
+/** RegExp that matches version placeholders inside of a file. */
+const versionPlaceholderRegex = new RegExp(versionPlaceholderText);
+
+/**
+ * Walks through every file in a directory and replaces the version placeholders with the current
+ * version of Material.
+ */
+export function replaceVersionPlaceholders(packageDir: string) {
+  // Resolve files that contain version placeholders using Grep since it's super fast and also
+  // does have a very simple usage.
+  const files = spawnSync('grep', ['-ril', versionPlaceholderText, packageDir]).stdout
+    .toString()
+    .split('\n')
+    .filter(String);
+
+  // Walk through every file that contains version placeholders and replace those with the current
+  // version of the root package.json file.
+  files.forEach(filePath => {
+    let fileContent = readFileSync(filePath, 'utf-8');
+
+    fileContent = fileContent.replace(versionPlaceholderRegex, buildConfig.projectVersion);
+
+    writeFileSync(filePath, fileContent);
+  });
+}
diff --git a/tools/package-tools/build-release.ts b/tools/package-tools/build-release.ts
index 4b355a885275..e9d0d94cbc16 100644
--- a/tools/package-tools/build-release.ts
+++ b/tools/package-tools/build-release.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import {join} from 'path';
 import {copyFiles} from './copy-files';
 import {addPureAnnotationsToFile} from './pure-annotations';
-import {updatePackageVersion} from './package-versions';
+import {replaceVersionPlaceholders} from './version-placeholders';
 import {inlinePackageMetadataFiles} from './metadata-inlining';
 import {createTypingsReexportFile} from './typings-reexport';
 import {createMetadataReexportFile} from './metadata-reexport';
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ export function composeRelease(packageName: string) {
   copyFiles(packagesDir, 'README.md', releasePath);
   copyFiles(sourcePath, 'package.json', releasePath);
 
-  updatePackageVersion(releasePath);
+  replaceVersionPlaceholders(releasePath);
   createTypingsReexportFile(releasePath, packageName);
   createMetadataReexportFile(releasePath, packageName);
   addPureAnnotationsToFile(join(releasePath, '@angular', `${packageName}.es5.js`));
diff --git a/tools/package-tools/package-versions.ts b/tools/package-tools/package-versions.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 110297e59a12..000000000000
--- a/tools/package-tools/package-versions.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-import {writeFileSync} from 'fs';
-import {join} from 'path';
-import {buildConfig} from './build-config';
-
-/** Version of the project that will be used to replace the placeholder. */
-const {projectVersion} = buildConfig;
-
-/** Updates the `package.json` file of the specified package. Replaces the version placeholder. */
-export function updatePackageVersion(packageDir: string) {
-  const packagePath = join(packageDir, 'package.json');
-  const packageConfig = require(packagePath);
-
-  // Replace the `0.0.0-PLACEHOLDER` version name with the version of the root package.json file.
-  packageConfig.version = packageConfig.version.replace('0.0.0-PLACEHOLDER', projectVersion);
-
-  writeFileSync(packagePath, JSON.stringify(packageConfig, null, 2));
-}
diff --git a/tools/package-tools/version-placeholders.ts b/tools/package-tools/version-placeholders.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..61d81aa6000e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/package-tools/version-placeholders.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+import {readFileSync, writeFileSync} from 'fs';
+import {buildConfig} from './build-config';
+import {spawnSync} from 'child_process';
+
+/** Variable that is set to the string for version placeholders. */
+const versionPlaceholderText = '0.0.0-PLACEHOLDER';
+
+/** RegExp that matches version placeholders inside of a file. */
+const versionPlaceholderRegex = new RegExp(versionPlaceholderText);
+
+/**
+ * Walks through every file in a directory and replaces the version placeholders with the current
+ * version of Material.
+ */
+export function replaceVersionPlaceholders(packageDir: string) {
+  // Resolve files that contain version placeholders using Grep since it's super fast and also
+  // does have a very simple usage.
+  const files = spawnSync('grep', ['-ril', versionPlaceholderText, packageDir]).stdout
+    .toString()
+    .split('\n')
+    .filter(String);
+
+  // Walk through every file that contains version placeholders and replace those with the current
+  // version of the root package.json file.
+  files.forEach(filePath => {
+    let fileContent = readFileSync(filePath, 'utf-8');
+
+    fileContent = fileContent.replace(versionPlaceholderRegex, buildConfig.projectVersion);
+
+    writeFileSync(filePath, fileContent);
+  });
+}