diff --git a/changelog/64023.added.md b/changelog/64023.added.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..90af8c2e4b0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/64023.added.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add --next-release argument to salt/version.py, which prints the next upcoming release.
diff --git a/salt/version.py b/salt/version.py
index 67719bd0201f..05a16d008862 100644
--- a/salt/version.py
+++ b/salt/version.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """
 Set up the version of Salt
 """
+import argparse
 import operator
 import os
 import platform
@@ -921,5 +922,17 @@ def versions_report(include_salt_cloud=False, include_extensions=True):
     yield from info
 
 
+def _parser():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--next-release", help="Return the next release", action="store_true"
+    )
+    return parser.parse_args()
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    print(__version__)
+    args = _parser()
+    if args.next_release:
+        print(__saltstack_version__.next_release())
+    else:
+        print(__version__)
diff --git a/tools/changelog.py b/tools/changelog.py
index 8cb9dd3e7a5b..bd2b290a5c27 100644
--- a/tools/changelog.py
+++ b/tools/changelog.py
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
 from jinja2 import Environment, FileSystemLoader
 from ptscripts import Context, command_group
 
-import salt.version
 from tools.utils import REPO_ROOT, Version
 
 CHANGELOG_LIKE_RE = re.compile(r"([\d]+)\.([a-z]+)$")
@@ -176,8 +175,11 @@ def _get_pkg_changelog_contents(ctx: Context, version: Version):
     return changes
 
 
-def _get_salt_version(ctx):
-    ret = ctx.run("python3", "salt/version.py", capture=True, check=False)
+def _get_salt_version(ctx, next_release=False):
+    args = []
+    if next_release:
+        args.append("--next-release")
+    ret = ctx.run("python3", "salt/version.py", *args, capture=True, check=False)
     if ret.returncode:
         ctx.error(ret.stderr.decode())
         ctx.exit(1)
@@ -314,7 +316,7 @@ def update_release_notes(
     next_release: bool = False,
 ):
     if salt_version is None:
-        salt_version = _get_salt_version(ctx)
+        salt_version = _get_salt_version(ctx, next_release=next_release)
     changes = _get_changelog_contents(ctx, salt_version)
     changes = "\n".join(changes.split("\n")[2:])
     if salt_version.local:
@@ -330,14 +332,6 @@ def update_release_notes(
         release_notes_path = pathlib.Path("doc/topics/releases") / "{}.md".format(
             version
         )
-    if next_release and not release:
-        version = ".".join(
-            str(part)
-            for part in salt.version.SaltStackVersion(*version).next_release().info
-        )
-        release_notes_path = pathlib.Path("doc/topics/releases") / "{}.md".format(
-            version
-        )
 
     template_release_path = (
         release_notes_path.parent / "templates" / f"{version}.md.template"